Smallville
by The Metal Mulisha
Summary: AU Fanfic. October 1989 - A meteor shower suddenly hits the town of Smallville Kansas. Within the meteor shower is hidden a vessel containing two orphaned children from a now dead planet called Krypton.
1. October 1989

**Smallville**

**Summary: _An AU fanfic. _**October 1989 – A meteor shower hits the town of Smallville Kansas, bringing about chaos and destruction for its citizens while also bringing to the world two orphaned children of a now dead planet light years away. Present Day – Clark Kent and his twin sister Lara are two teenagers just trying to get through high school and live a normal life, while having amazing abilities that will set them apart from everyone else for the rest of their lives.

_October 1989 _

_Numerous pieces of space rock ranging in various sizes and forms tumbled through space at a high velocity while hidden amongst them was a rather peculiar shaped piece that was not tumbling about, but was set straight of a predestined course. The rain storm of space rock crossed over the moon and continued on towards the third rock from the sun – Earth. Down on Earth, more precisely in the town of Smallville in the state of Kansas, one would find upon entering its city limits the wooden welcome sing painted in bold and bright colors with the usual greetings that most cities have – **WELCOME TO SMALLVILLE KANSAS THE CREAM CORN CAPITAL OF THE WORLD POP. 25,001**. A picture of two ears of corn was pictured amongst the words. A shadow passed over the sign and then continued over a huge field of corn as it continued on towards Smallville itself. The shadow belonged to a private helicopter belonging to Luthor Corp's Lionel Luthor, who was inside the helicopter reading a copy of the Daily Planet. Along with him was his only son and heir to Luthor Corp. The boy had curly red hair, and for the moment the color of his eyes was indiscernible as he had them closed shut and tight. Lionel Luthor had been reading his paper for most of the ride until that is, he glanced over at his son and took notice of his closed eyes._

_Closing his paper and folding into his lap, Lionel mumbled to himself. "This has got to stop. Open your eyes Lex." Lionel near demanded._

_"I can't." Lex replied while keeping his eyes shut the whole time. He had a fear of flying._

_"Luthors are not afraid. We don't have that luxury. We're leaders." Lionel stated while then leaning over to his son, who still had his eyes closed no matter what was going to be said to him. "You have a destiny, Lex. You're never going to get anywhere with your eyes closed."_

_The helicopter continued on towards its own destination while Lex kept his eyes shut the entire time._

_In the downtown area of Smallville, at a local flower shop, a little girl of three-years-old with big bright green eyes dressed in a princess costume with wings attached sat on a metal garden chair before a flat water fountain with several ceramic frogs spitting out the small streams of water into a gravel bed. She waved a plastic wand tipped with a beaded star pattern over the fountain frogs repeating the word "Abracadabra" over and over a few times. The door to the flower shop opened suddenly, a small bell being rattled overhead to herald the entrance of someone's entrance to the small store packed with various varieties of flowers. A couple walked in together, the man looked over towards the front counter where a woman dressed in a dressy shirt with leopard print had her back turned to them as she was busy with something. "Afternoon Nell." The man greeted before looking in through the glass door to a large fridge holding flowers within a cooler environment._

_The woman turned around and smiled broadly at the man who had greeted her. "Jonathan." The woman who was with him turned to face her from staring into the contents of the fridge and smiled over at her. "Martha. What a surprise." She stated, her face dropping a bit and her tone of voice sounding a bit disheartened for some reason or other. She set aside a few papers she had been working on and reached back to smaller portion of the wrap around counter to retrieve a pen she had forgotten to take with her when she turned about. "What brings the reclusive Kents to town?" she asked while still holding a smile to her face._

_Martha headed over to the front counter at the question of their being there. "Tulips. Red ones, if you have them." She stated while coming to a stop at the counter and placing her hands on the lip, a smile on her face._

_"What about a tiger orchid?" Nell asked while taking a step back gesturing towards the white cylinder container containing a large bunch of the flowers that she was referring to._

_Jonathan walked over to the counter to stand beside Martha. "No thanks. Martha has her heart set on tulips." He stated while placing an arm around his wife's shoulder, which in turn had Nell nodding as she stepped out from behind the counter._

_"Yes well, they are a very uncomplicated flower." Nell said while heading off to gather up the asked for arrangement that Martha requested._

_As Nell went for the flowers, Martha took notice of the little girl sitting at the fountain waving her wand over the ceramic frogs and saying the one magic word that was always used when it came the terms of magic use. Martha crouched down beside the little girl, an even larger smile on her face. "That is a pretty dress, Lana. Are you a princess?" she asked, the little girl's attention was now on Martha with a toothy grin._

_"I'm a fairy princess." Lana corrected with a grin and a happy tone to her voice as she spoke._

_Jonathan had also come around the corner of the counter and smiled as he watched his wife interact with the little Lana Lang. "Hey, where are her parents?" Jonathan asked while looking over his shoulder at Nell as she was bringing the red tulips back to the counter._

_Nell smiled over at the little Lana before answering Jonathan Kent's question. "Oh, they're at the homecoming game with everyone else." She answered while looking over at Jonathan a laughing as she spoke. "I'm being the good aunt." She stated while taking the tulips over to the counter to be rung up._

_"What to make a wish?" Lana asked of Martha with that same smile still on her small face that seemed to beam with an inner light if that was even possible._

_Martha grinned happily at Lana's question. "I would love to make a wish." She replied to which Lana only reached her wand out towards her._

_"Okay. Abracadabra." Lana recited and then placed the star shape to Martha's forehead, to which Martha tilted her head slightly in response._

_After paying for the bunch of tulips, the Kents said their good-byes to Nell and Lana before heading out and finishing the rest of their errands in town. While Jonathan went to pick up a few bags of feed, Martha went to wait in the truck. Martha Kent stared out the rolled down window with a look of day dreaming written across her face as she waited for her husband. Before long Jonathan returned to the red pickup truck and placed several small bags of feed into the bed of the truck before going to the driver side door and got in. Martha looked back over her shoulder in response to the door opening and smiled over at her husband before her attention returned out the window. Jonathan got inside the cab of the truck and shut the door as he scooted over to his wife's side and leaned against her._

_"I know what you wished for." He stated with a smile in voice and on his face while staring at her in a loving manner._

_"I see a little face. It's all I ever wanted." She replied while then feeling her husband's hand come to rest on her shoulder. Turning she smiled at him as he leaned forward and placed a kiss upon her lips to which she returned with her own._

_A sudden cheer started up around them outside the car along with car horns honking in repetition. Martha and Jonathan were startled a bit, but it dawned on them as to what was going on with so many people starting come down the sidewalks wearing yellow and red while waving either pom-poms, flags, and even banners while clapping, cheering, whistling, or of course honking the horns of cars. Jonathan scooted back over to his side of the car and looked out of the rolled down truck window. Cars were coming down the street with teens and adults waving school colors and cheering all the same with horns of the cars honking every once in a while. Martha smiled and laughed a bit as she scooted near Jonathan to look out the window as well._

_"Hey, looks like Smallville won again." Jonathan commented while starting up the engine and pulled out away from the curb he had parked alongside and entered the line of cars passing through the downtown streets of Smallville._

_While festivities and celebrating continued due to the win of the homecoming game on Smallville High's own turf, in space the rain of space rocks were finally entering the atmosphere of the Earth along with the oddly shaped piece that continued on in a straight line of sorts. All the rocks and this oddity started to generate flames about their bodies as they streaked through the atmosphere at incredible speeds. The rocks began to slightly burn up in the atmosphere, but this oddly shaped piece that was strangely made out a metal element and did not burn with the flames surrounding like the rocks._

_A crow cocked its head to the side as it stared at something, only have a rock thrown at the wooden fence post it perched itself upon and then gave a shrill caw before flying away. Lex stared after it as he had been the one to throw the rock in the first place. "Lex? Son?" Lionel's voice called the boy's attention back around for a moment. After seeing that Lex was not getting himself into any trouble, Lionel turned back to the two men he was standing with at the front of a pickup truck. "Now where do I sign?" he asked while looking over a few documents while holding a pen in hand._

_"Right here, Mr. Luthor." One of them stated while pointing to the indicated line for a signature._

_While his father's attention was elsewhere, Lex just shook his curly red head and then decided he had had enough of this boring matter and slipped through the spaces between the wooden rail fencing used to separate the cream corn plant his father was buying from the large ocean of cornstalks on the other side. Entering the cornfield, Lex started to walk aimlessly around, all sight of him being lost within the sea of green. After a few minutes of walking around, Lex stopped and started to look about himself realizing the obvious…he was a bit lost. Sighing to himself, Lex tried to remember which way it was that he had come from when suddenly something startled him. It was a voice. A voice asking for help. Again it begged for help, and this sent Lex running into any direction he was currently facing. As he ran through stalks of corn, Lex started to become short of breath as he had asthma, a bad case of it at that. Pulling his inhaler from the pocket of his school uniform's jacket, Lex went to place the spout in his mouth, but managed to instead trip up and land face first in the soil beneath him, loosing grip on his inhaler. Coughing and sputtering to free his mouth of dirt while grabbing his inhaler off the ground and sitting up to scoot backwards, Lex leaned back against a wooden post and tried to relax._

_"Hey, kid."_

_Lex looked up to see a pair of dirty feet and then continued his gaze upwards to stare at the face of a rather skinny young man who's chest bore a quickly painted on red S. The guy was tied up like a scarecrow. Getting up on his feet, Lex stepped backwards a few steps and continued to stare up at the young man._

_"Help me." He pleaded in a quiet voice. "Help me, please."_

_Behind him, Lex could see a long dark streak pass through the sky, it looked like a black cloud something trailed after catching fire and plummeting to the Earth. Whatever it was passed overhead to slam right into the cornfield a bit further behind Lex. Turning to watch, Lex next saw a huge wall of dirt come rushing through the cornfield right for where he and other boy were at. A sense of panic over took Lex and immediately he turned on his heel and bolted to escape the on coming wall that roared up right behind him. Without a second warning Lex was overtaken by the wall of dirt and various other pieces of debris._

_In town, people were staring up at the sky where a thick column of black smoke had passed over and still remained. As they vacated cars and stores to stare up at the sky in wonder they murmured amongst themselves. A few wondered if maybe an Air Force plane had been downed by the way the black smoke lingered in its column plummeting downwards from the sky. Even Nell came out from her flower shop with little Lana in her arms to see what everyone's attention. Staring up at the sky she too could only gawk for the time being. On the other side of the street, a car had parked itself alongside the curb and the man and woman inside got out. The woman caught sight of Nell and Lana, her face breaking into a beautiful smile as she waved._

_"Hi Lana." She called out and grabbed the little girl's attention._

_Lana looked over and grinned from ear to ear while holding on to her Aunt Nell's neck. "Mommy! Daddy!"_

_Lana's father smiled over at her, but his attention went up into the sky along with his wife's to stare at the angled column of black smoke. Nell looked over and noted the fact that her sister and brother-in-law had arrived, but when she saw that Lana's father had turned his attention towards the sky, she did the same. Just as she was looking back into the sky, everyone spotted a flaming meteor come streaking out of the sky and straight for the streets below. Without any warning, the meteor struck the parked car the Langs stood beside. Upon impact with the vehicle, an explosion erupted and consumed the car and the couple in a massive ball of flame. Debris from the explosion flew out in various directions along with a massive gust of wind that blew dirt everywhere. Nell held Lana against her and dove for cover immediately as soon as the explosion had taken place killing her sister and brother-in-law. People screamed and ran for cover as the fireball that had been a car bounced high in the air and then back down to land in the middle of the street burning continuously and extremely hot. More meteors were headed down from the skies towards Smallville. One struck the water tower and exploded, while yet another crashed through the tower front of a building to come out the other side and hit a parked truck. Other cars exploded as more meteors rained down upon the streets, sending the citizens of the small community to run for cover._

_Amidst all this chaos, Nell had managed to keep Lana safe and was now sitting up with the crying three-year-old in her arms now orphaned._

_The meteor shower had not been limited to just the downtown area of Smallville and its outer fringe of course. Once the shower had ended, and it was somewhat safe, Lionel ran out into the cornfield calling for his missing son. "Lex! Lex! Where are you!" he cried out in a sort of panic as he picked his way through a few cornrows_

_After coming to a stop upon entering the field, Lionel stared out at the entirely flattened field of corn. The stalks had all been flown over to lay flat against the ground while others had been ripped up after the impact of the meteor sent out a gust of wind and dirt all across the area like a rippling effect on the surface of a pond when a stone had been dropped in at it middle. Scanning the area quickly first, Lionel could see no sight of his son off hand. But his attention somehow went down to his feet where near his left foot sat a lock of curly red…hair._

_Crouching down, an empty unsettling feeling came over the wealthy CEO of Luthor Corp as he picked up the lock of hair and studied it for a moment. He knew it to be his son's as he fingered it for a few seconds before realizing that maybe Lex was nearby. Looking up he again quickly scanned the area. His gaze fell upon something that was not flat like the rest of the field had become. Getting up, he ran over to little mound of cornstalks. Reaching it, he immediately scooped away the green stalks that covered his son. Only Lionel found to both his relief and horror that his son was alive and well, trembling, whimpering, and without any trace of her red hair upon his head. But he was alive_

_Along the road out of town, the Kent's red pickup was traveling along a peaceful speed when from behind it a meteor shower came flying down out of the sky to crash into the cornfield along the roadside. The sudden explosion of the impact caught the couple off guard and startled them. Another meteor came down and crashed into the welcome sign, which burst into tiny pieces upon impact under the force of the meteor's fall. Martha turned about in her seat and stared out the back window to see what had happened. "What's happening Jonathan?" she asked while looking over at her husband who had also turned to see what had happened._

_As their attention was off the road before them but behind them, the Kents didn't notice the odd shaped metal meteor slamming into the road ahead of them and sliding across the surface turning the asphalt into finely crushed gravel. A billowing trail of smoke arose from this odd collision. Jonathan turned about and stared at the billowing smoke cloud coming up off the road and slammed down on the brakes, only to have the pickup slid into the smoke and disappear from sight. However, in the next moment, the sounds of a car crashing came from within the smoke. The red pickup truck had been flipped upside down in a carved out trench that a meteor strike had caused, and both Martha and Jonathan were momentarily knocked unconscious._

_Jonathan was the first to start coming around and for a moment figured that his ears were playing tricks on him at first from having been in a car accident. He distinctly heard the sounds of approaching footsteps, but that didn't seem as though could be true until he looked out the window. Blinking a few times just make sure he was seeing this right, Jonathan watched as two pairs of tiny feet walked side by side towards the over turned truck. The feet stopped just before the window and remained stationery. For a moment Jonathan wasn't sure what to think about this. "Martha?" he called his wife's name, as she was just starting to come around as well._

_Both husband and wife stared out the window at the two pairs of feet, because at that moment the little faces belonging to those feet crouched down and peered into the cab of the truck with large smiles. Jonathan looked over at his wife who held the same look of confusion on her face as he did before looking back and continued to stare with his wife a sort of dumbfounded awe. Staring in at them, unclothed and completely naked, were a little boy and girl looking to be of same age and family by the looks of it as they had the same dark colored hair and bright blue eyes. The two children remained close to each other as they smiled at Martha and Jonathan, arms wrapped about their knees. Before long, the Kents had gotten themselves out of the over turned pickup and went immediately to check on these two children who stood up upon their arrival and held out their arms to them in a gesture to be picked up. Martha couldn't contain herself and was beaming brightly as she knelt down and embraced both children who went right to her. The two wrapped their arms about her neck on opposite sides and hugged her._

_Jonathan crouched down next to his wife and these two children and smiled at them. "We better find them something to cover up with." He stated to his wife, who looked over at him with a bright smile and nodded._

_"I think there's a blanket in the storage bin on the bed of the truck. But I think there's just one." Martha stated while looking back over her shoulder at the truck._

_It took a while, but Jonathan managed to get under the gap between the ground and the bed of the over turned truck. Once under the truck bed, Jonathan got the storage bin pried open and most of its contents fell out along with the blanket that Martha had mentioned. Grabbing the blanket, Jonathan crawled back out from under the truck and handed the pale blue blanket over to his wife who wrapped the blanket about the little boy and then gathered him up in her arms. Seeing as how there was just that one blanket to spare, Jonathan removed his jacket and used it to cover up the little girl before taking her up in his arms as well. Both kids had wrapped their arms about the necks of Martha and Jonathan after being picked up and were smiling now at each other before looking up at the people holding them and still smiled. The little girl cuddled up against Jonathan and rested her head on his shoulder without any hesitation or second thought to who he was. Martha had to fight back tears that were starting to come over her at the sight of such a sweet thing. Jonathan had to swallow a bit hard as he looked over at his wife and smiled at her._

_"Jonathan." Martha said her husband's name before pausing as she looked between the two children they were holding as she had just started to realize something about these two. "They look so much alike." She pointed out and then looked to her husband with a somewhat astonished look on her face. "They must be twins, or if not, of the same family."_

_Jonathan nodded in agreement to this while looking off down the newly cut ditch across the road. Smoke was steaming off the entire thing as if something extremely hot had cut through. The Kents started to make their way down the ditch, searching for signs as to where the two children had come from. Kicking aside a few strewn about charred branches, Jonathan continued down the ditch with Martha following. "Children just don't fall out of the sky Martha." He stated while continuing on._

_"Then where did they come from?" she asked as they weren't seeing anything around to tell them the answer to this question._

_Kicking another branch to the side Jonathan kept his hold on the little girl as a dip in the ground appeared before coming back to a level surface. "I don't know. But they must have parents." Jonathan stated while then stepping up a small rise to come to a stop after seeing something that didn't seem right at all. Embedded within the ground, buried half way, was the tail end of something large and metal-like and more than likely it was what had struck the road and carved out the ditch._

_Martha came up beside him and stared down at the object as well. "Well if he does, they're definitely not from Kansas." She pointed out while studying the object for a moment before looking at the little boy she held in her arms and smiled at him sweetly. Her smile then turned to the little girl peering over at her and then reached a hand out to tickle her under the chin a bit._

_Seeing that his wife was starting to grow attached to the two children already, Jonathan sighed and gave his wife a knowing look. "Sweetheart we can't keep them. What are we going to tell people? That we found them out in a field?" he asked._

_"We didn't find them." Martha replied while looking over at her husband and giving a small smile before looking at the two children they held. "They found us."_


	2. The Beginning

**_Chapter One_ **

**The Beginning**

PRESENT DAY

Morning had broken a few hours ago upon Smallville. Jonathan Kent had been up with the dawn to start work on the farm as usual, his wife Martha soon following right after an hour later. The sun was out and shinning now, giving life and light to the midwestern farmland of Kansas. Martha was downstairs in the kitchen finishing up some cleaning after breakfast, primarily dishwashing. Glancing over at the digital clock on the kitchen stove, Martha sighed while practically turning around to face the staircase leading up to the second story of the farmhouse.

"Clark Kent, get down here before you miss the bus!" she called out and then turned back to the sink to finish washing dishes in the sink. Not even missing a beat, Martha glanced over at the kitchen island and smiled. "Lara, can you go upstairs and get your brother?" she asked the dark haired teen girl sitting comfortably on a wooden stool eating a bowl of cereal while reading a copy of the Daily Planet, her blue eyes moving quickly over the print.

Setting her spoon down inside the still partially full bowl, Lara looked up at her mother and nodded with a smile on her face while getting up off her stool. "I can use force if necessary, right?" she joked and only received a somewhat mock stern look from her mother as she headed for the staircase.

Martha laughed while shaking her head at her daughter's attempt for a joke. Lara ran up the stairs quickly and headed down the straight dead end hallway to the second door on the left that was open with the door pulled inwards. Grabbing on to the side of the doorframe with a hand, Lara swung into the bedroom and stopped so that way she was hanging halfway in. "Clark, come on. I don't wanna run to school again today." She stated while looking over at the young man her own age sitting behind a computer screen staring intently at it.

After hearing his sister's voice, Clark looked up and grinned broadly at her. "Who said you had to wait for me anyways?" Clark asked while getting up from the chair he had been sitting in and turned off the computer screen. Grabbing his backpack off the end of his bed, Clark came over to the door where his sister still hung off the frame.

"You know, I try and be a nice sister and what do I get for it?" Lara asked sarcastically while giving Clark a mock glare.

Clark grinned at her and then set a hand atop her head. "You get the comment of 'You look like a monkey hanging off the door like that'." He replied and then tussled her dark hair a bit to mess it up.

Lara swatted Clark's hand away as he laughed and walked out the room with Lara following right behind him, muttering under her breath and fixing her hair while giving his back the evil eye out from under her bangs.

It wasn't ever really sure if the two teens were identical twins or not, but Jonathan and Martha decided to establish Clark as the big brother to Lara being the younger sibling seeing as how that was in most families and only wanted a normal life for their children. Both Clark and Lara Kent were almost identical in how they looked; dark haired, bright blue eyes, tall stature (Clark only being a few inches taller than Lara), lean body build (Clark again being more muscular than Lara), and both had grown from adorable children to a handsome young man and a beautiful young lady. Only thing was both were incredibly different from their parents and friends. Now, that wasn't because Clark and Lara were adopted, but because both teenagers had incredible gifts that were identical to one another as they were in near likeness. Both Clark and Lara learned at a young age that they were inhumanly strong and inhumanly fast, and not just physically. Both could read at a faster rate than a cram student and yet retain every bit they read to remember weeks and even months later with an accurate photographic memory. Math was never a problem or issues of struggle either as they were able to calculate number formulas faster than any calculator in the house. And of course they could move at an amazing speed, covering great distances in seconds or even minutes depending how far they wanted to go.

When it was said that they were inhumanly strong, it was no joke. Without breaking a sweat, without any effort or aid of any kind, both Clark and Lara were capable of lifting the farm tractor off the ground and hold it up high over their heads separately. As strange as this all may sound, this never changed the type of people their parents raised them to be. Instilled with good moral values of honesty, responsibility, respect for others, and the duty to help those who can't help themselves, Clark and Lara had become two upstanding teen youths. Being so different from everyone else had its affects on the brother and sister duo, one being that they were very close since childhood and stuck together like glue. Wherever Lara went, Clark wasn't that far behind acting his part of the protective older brother and keeping a close eye on his more outgoing and adventurous little sister to make sure she didn't get into any trouble or got hurt. Then, wherever Clark went there was Lara following after like his shadow. They knew they were different and that they were going to have to stick together through the thick and thin in this world.

The two teens came down the stairs, elbowing each other to get down first before the other but somehow managed to get down at the same time and head for the kitchen where their mother had moved from washing the dishes to wiping down the counters. Lara returned to the island where her breakfast was waiting to be finished while Clark headed for the fridge, a slip of white paper in his hand. Martha smiled at her two children and gave her daughter an especially impressed look. "How do you do it?" she asked while gesturing towards Clark with her eyes and a nod of the head.

Lara only grinned while shrugging as she started in on her cereal again to finish it off. Clark on the other hand looked over at his mother before opening the fridge and gave her a somewhat confused look, which only earned a small laugh from his mother who returned to wiping the counters clean. Opening the fridge, Clark grabbed the glass craft holding milk within its body and then closed the door while taking a drink from the wide mouth. Martha happened to turn about at that moment and stepped over to her son and intervened before any more of the creamy white substance could be lost down his throat.

Placing a hand on the craft, Martha guided it away from her son's mouth while giving him a slightly disapproving look. "Ah, use a glass." She stated while taking the craft away from him completely and walked over to the nearest cabinet where the glasses were stored. "Where did you learn your manners?" Martha asked while opening the cabinet door and pulled out a clean glass.

Clark looked over at his sister while pulling a bowl out of the cabinet he was next to and then came to sit down next to her at the island. "I learned them from her." He gestured with a thumb towards Lara while pouring himself a bowl of cereal from the same box that Lara had gotten hers from. For this remark of his, Clark received a punch to the upper arm by his sister that had him looking over at her with a furrowed brow while rubbing the sore spot her punch had left behind. "I was only kidding." He stated while setting the piece of paper down between him and Lara on the counter. While their mom was busy fetching a couple of glasses from the cabinet, Clark nudged his sister's arm and had her looking over at him with a raised brow.

After catching Clark's eye gesture that asked for her to look down in the space between them, Lara quickly looked over the slip of paper and then looked back up at Clark. "Good luck." She stated quietly while returning to her cereal and eating a dripping spoonful. "I just hope you know that it's not going to work."

"What's not going to work?" Jonathan's voice asked as the screen door opened and closed, causing Lara to jump and choke on her cereal before turning in her seat to watch her dad come around from behind them and head towards the coffee pot.

Martha had an alarmed look on her face after Lara nearly drowned herself with milk and cereal, but her concern died when Clark patted his sister's back while his own face looked a bit worried. Sighing to herself in a sort of content way, Martha felt the milk craft leave her hand as Jonathan removed it and took a drink. Shaking her head, Martha finally realized where it was that Clark learned his manners, and it wasn't from his sister. Setting the two glasses down on the counter, Martha looked at her family ready to fill them in on what was going on that day. "All right, I have class tonight so the three of you are on your own." She stated, and then caught the sudden gleam in her daughter's eye that was flashed over at her father. Martha's face took a serious look as she knew what idea was floating around in that head of hers. "There's plenty of food in the fridge for dinner, so no ordering pizza." A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as Lara rested her arms on either side of her cereal bowl and then dropped her head to the counter with a small bang.

Clark had to force himself from laughing at his sister's reaction to the 'no pizza' rule their mom had set down, considering the fact that he had cereal in his mouth at the moment. However, as he looked down at his bowl, his eye wondered over to the slip of paper now under his sister's arm. He had a longing look on his face before reaching over and yanking the paper carefully out from under his sister's arm. "What do you have there son?" Jonathan asked while setting the milk craft down on the island counter while turning back around to the kitchen counter behind him where the coffee pot was located with mug in hand.

Seeing as how he was hesitating, Lara elbowed him in the arm and then gestured with her brows to answer their dad. Clark got up off his seat and stepped over to his dad's side. "Permission slip to tryout for football." He replied and then handed the white piece of paper over to him as he was leaving the coffee pot, a full mug in hand. "A few spots opened up on the team, and they're holding tryouts after school." He explained and then started in on his attempt to get his dad to agree. "Come on dad, you played football in school."

"That was different son." Jonathan stated while taking up a third empty stool seat around the island and took a drink from his mug. His gaze fell over to his daughter who immediately turned her attention away from everyone and placed back intently on the side panel of the cereal box like she was interested in the ingredients to the Honey Combs. Somehow Jonathan had a slight inkling that maybe Lara had a hand in this somehow, while also understanding what she meant by that earlier comment he had walked in on.

"Yeah but, I figure if I run at half speed nobody will get hurt. I promise." Clark returned with a hopeful look on his face as he waited for his dad's answer.

"A lot of things can happen in the heat of a game son." Jonathan replied while taking another drink from his coffee and set the permission slip down on the counter, which Martha picked up to look at and placed then set it back down on the counter.

Clark glanced over at his sister quickly for help, who looked over at her parents, primarily their dad ready to argue Clark's case. "Come on dad, most freshman that make the team nearly warm the benches the whole season. And Clark would be a really good player if he got the chance."

"Lara, it's not that I don't doubt that Clark would be great at football, it's just not safe for either one of you to get involved in such physical activities, like football and soccer." Jonathan stated while looking between his two kids. The soccer part was meant for Lara, seeing as how she had tried the same thing when tryouts for soccer opened up in Junior High and then not too long ago when the announcement for the High School team was made before the start of freshman year. "I know the two of you can be careful, but what if there's an accident?" he asked them seriously. "Look, kids, I know this hard for you. But you've just gotta hang in there like we promised." At this, Jonathan clapped his son on the shoulder.

A small sigh escaped Lara as she left the kitchen to grab her backpack off one of the dinning room chairs she had left it on. Clark on the other hand wasn't taking it as well as Lara was fronting. "I'm sick of hanging in there." He stated while pulling out from under his dad's hand. "I just wanna get through high school without being a total looser." Clark said while grabbing his backpack off the ground near the kitchen door and then headed off before he missed the bus.

Jonathan and Martha exchanged looks as Lara came over into the kitchen again and stood beside them. "Maybe pizza for dinner would make him feel better?" she suggested in question while placing an arm about her mother's shoulders, a hopeful smile on her face.

"Nice try little miss." Martha grinned while then planting a kiss on her daughter's temple. "Hurry up before you miss the bus." She hugged her and then passed Lara off to her husband.

"Bye dad." Lara bent down and gave her dad a kiss on the cheek, which he returned along with a good-bye as well. Running out the door at a normal pace, Lara jumped off the porch to catch up with her brother who was almost halfway down the gravel drive. "Clark wait up!" she called out.

Pausing his walk, Clark looked over his shoulder and watched as his sister finally caught up with him and then started walking again with her at his side. "Well?" he asked while glancing over at his sister hoping maybe she said something to their dad to turn him over to their side.

Lara looked over at Clark and held a somewhat down look on her face. "Well, no pizza for dinner tonight." She stated with a pout.

A roll of Clark's eyes and a groan was all that was given in return to this statement and adjusted the strap of his backpack. "Gee, thanks sis." He said while looking up towards the end of the driveway where the yellow school bus was now pulling away and leaving the twins behind in the dust as they ran for the end of the driveway only to come to a stop and stare after it.

"Wonderful." Lara commented sarcastically while looking after the departing bus. "That's the third time this week that we've missed the bus again, and now have to run to school…again." She added for the heck of it and then looked over at her brother who had a growing smirk on his face. "You know it's not like I'm complaining or anything about having to run, but this gets old Clark and I'm pretty sure our friends are now taking bets on us." Lara explained while giving a small grin.

Clark returned the grin and only gestured with a nod of his head before both of them disappeared in two distinct blurs of blue and red that raced off across the open flatland that then gave way to cornfields which primarily made up most of Smallville. As the school bus pulled up to its next stop a good three miles from Hickory Lane, address of the Kent Farm, the two blurs of separate color passed through a cornfield causing the stalks to part before swaying back and forth. After the bus came to a complete stop, the two teens were up and over the top of the bus and into the next field passing behind two distinct signs, after of course causing some on the bus, well one person, to wonder what that sound was on the roof. One sign had been replaced after the meteor shower twelve years ago when it was struck and turned into a rain of splinters. It was of course the welcome sign into Smallville, only the picture of ears of corn had been replaced by meteors falling from the sky and now read – **WELCOME TO SMALLVILLE METEOR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! POP. 45,001**. The other sign advertised one of those new communities being built soon called Pleasant Meadows. Apparently this was a new Luthor Corp project in the works, only the slogan used of Making America A Better Place To Live, was out shadowed by the fact that these new homes were going be starting at a price range of $245,000.

The doors of Smallville High School were open to its students to start up the new year and begrudgingly the many were walking in through those open doors. The freshman starting this year at the high school had a bit more of a better reason than most to have the high school blues, they were freshman. Most of the buses had pulled into the drop off zone located on the track part of the football field and released the hordes of students out from within its confines, and already the campus was swarming with activity. Two students stepped off the bus that left behind the Kent siblings, and headed towards the school building itself while involved in a conversation between them. Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross walked side by side as they climbed up the cement steps that brought them up to ground level with their school and continued on across the outdoor basketball court.

"So, has anyone asked you to the dance yet?" Pete asked while looking over at the blonde walking next to him.

Chloe shook her head. "No, not yet." She replied while not really giving Pete real attention as they crossed the basketball court.

"Well, if things don't work out with you-know-who asking you…" he began, only to be cut off as Chloe stopped, spun around, and stared right in the eye with a stern look on her face.

"Pete, for the last time! I do not like Clark!" Chloe nearly hissed. "So drop the soap opera in your head already." She insisted and then turned back around to nearly storm off.

Pete smiled sheepishly as he ran to catch up with her. "Your point as been noted." He stated while coming up to her side and offering an apologetic smile that Chloe seemed to accept. "Well, hey how about if nobody asks you, how about we go? Not like a date-date thing, but as a friend-friend thing." Pete suggested with a hidden look of hopefulness on his face as they passed through the open gate of the court.

Before Chloe could say anything in response, another female voice entered into the conversation suddenly. "Who's going to the dance?" Lara Kent asked as she suddenly popped from almost out of nowhere before her two friends with a quizzical look on her face. Her appearance startled the two completely as they jumped and stepped backwards to keep from running right into the dark haired girl who stood at literally six feet tall, and basically shadowed the both of them.

"How did you…?" Chloe started as her entire face showed just how confused she was at Lara's appearance. Both Lara and her brother Clark had missed the bus, and there was no way that they could have gotten to school before or even at the same time as her and Pete.

Pete just grinned at his friend's sister and shook his head at Chloe's confusion while laughing quietly. "So where's your brother at?" he asked while swinging his backpack onto his shoulder. Lara only looked in between the two with a gesture of her eyes to indicate answer to Pete's question.

"Hey guys." Clark's voice came from behind Pete and Chloe, which had them turning around staring just as dumbfounded at the other Kent as they had the first. Clark had appeared just like his sister, from out of nowhere, a pile of books in his hands.

"Wait, didn't you? How did the both of you…?" Chloe tried to make sense of all this while looking between the two Kents.

Lara looked over at Clark with a look on her face telling him to come up with something before Chloe looked back at her, and Lara only gave Chloe a quick smile as her brown-eyed gaze had been placed upon her. Clark looked down at his books for a moment to try and think up an excuse and then got something. "We took a shortcut." Clark stated quickly, which didn't sound that convincing as Chloe wrinkled her nose.

"Through what, black hole?" she asked while looking over at Pete for support on this sudden interrogation upon the two siblings.

Pete only shook his head and came around to Clark's side to clap him on the shoulder. "Clark, Lara," he looked over at the sister half and grinned at her. "You'll have to excuse our intrepid reporter." He stated while guiding his friend forward towards the school, grabbing Lara on the way as well. "It seems as though her weirdar is on Defcon 5." He explained as they walked. "She thought someone attacked the bus this morning."

At this point Chloe had run to catch up with her friends and came around to put herself in front of them to halt their advancement towards the building. "Okay, just because everyone else chooses to ignore all the strange things that happen in this leafy little hamlet, doesn't mean they don't happen." Chloe stated in defense of herself.

Lara grinned at her friend. "Chloe I don't think anyone chooses to ignore the weird and strange, rather than the fact that they don't notice it or go looking for it." She pointed out while receiving a somewhat unamused look from Chloe in return for this. "Hey, I was only trying to help you out." Lara stated while putting her hands up in defensive protest.

"Chloe, as much as we'd like to join you and Scooby in the Mystery Machine for another zany adventure, we have permission slips to turn in before homeroom." Pete said while pulling out a white slip of paper from his jeans pocket and held it up while grabbing a hold of Clark's arm and started to walk again towards the school building while leaving behind Lara and Chloe.

Chloe looked over at her dark haired friend and raised a brow. "What are they up to?" she asked while then looked over at the two boys who had retreated a few feet ahead of them and had stopped yet again as they seemed involved in a small discussion.

For a moment, Lara's gaze lingered on Clark's back as she knew what Pete was talking to him about. Sighing mentally, she looked over at Chloe and just smiled. "Guy stuff." She simply replied in which was meant as a tease at the curious mind of Chloe Sullivan. A reply from Chloe came as a suspicious look and raised brows. "So go ask them then." Lara shot back while gesturing with her hand for Chloe to go over.

As both girls were coming up on Pete and Clark they heard a bit of the end of the conversation. "I don't think trying out for the team is such a good idea." Clark stated in a tone of voice that was both doubtful and a bit disappointed, considering the fact that his dad had shot down the attempt of trying out by not signing the permission slip that morning.

"Clark, it's the only way." Pete insisted while holding the slip up for Clark to see as a reminder to what they had agreed upon early before the start of the school year.

"Wait, wait, wait. You two are trying out for the football team?" Chloe asked as both she and Lara came up on the boys. An amused grin was on her face as she came to stand by Pete and look at Clark. "What is this, some sort of teen suicide pack?" she asked with a laugh in her voice.

Clark and Lara gave Pete a look that had him grabbing Chloe and pulling her off to the side quickly. The group of four moved off a bit further from the rest of the student body swarming about them. Pete stopped and started to speak in a quiet tone of voice. "Look, we're trying to avoid becoming this years 'Scarecrow'." Pete explained in a near whisper as Clark and Lara came up to sort of block off their conversation from any near passers by in a letterman jacket.

"What are you talking about? And why are we whispering?" Chloe asked, her voice rising from a whisper in mock of Pete to that of a normal voice range.

"It's a homecoming tradition." Pete explained, his voice no longer that much of a whisper. "Every year before homecoming game, the football players select a freshman, take him out to Riley Field, strip him down to his boxers, paint an S on his chest –"

"And then string him up like a Scarecrow." Clark finished with a look on his face that had the same amount of concern that Pete had for not wanting to end up that way.

Chloe furrowed her brow and looked over at Lara to confirm this, and received a nod of the head. "Wow, sounds like years of therapy waiting to happen." Chloe commented while looking at the boys with a new amount of concern to mirror their own.

"Yes it is." Lara confirmed while adjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder. "I heard last years 'Scarecrow' was left out in the field all night, and when someone finally found him, he had to be taken to the hospital for fear that he might have ammonia or be suffering from dehydration." She explained while looking between all three. "Then four months later his parents pulled him out of school and put him in a private school in Metropolis, where he has private consoling sessions nearly everyday to get over the trauma of being the Scarecrow."

"And we figure if we try out for the team, they won't choose one of their own." Pete concluded to finish out the whole explanation about the trying out for the football team.

While Pete and Lara were finishing the story for Chloe, Clark's attention happened to waver over towards the front entrance of the school were it happened to fall upon a brunette girl laughing with a few cheerleaders near an information desk for freshman. To Clark, this girl was incredibly beautiful and nearly always had his attention when she was around. Looking back at his friends and sister, Clark had made up his mind to try and go over to talk with her. "I'll see you guys in class." He stated while then leaving them to walk over towards where this girl stood.

Chloe, Lara, and Pete gave a short 'okay' or 'bye' as he walked away. However, Chloe and Pete had another idea as they turned about to watch Clark. Lara was slightly intrigued with what they were doing and stood in between them from behind and watched as Pete pulled out a folded five dollar bill. "I give him ten seconds." He declared while glancing over at Chloe.

"Five." Chloe stated to start the new bet, and then Pete began the count starting from one. As Clark walked towards the brunette, on Pete's count of five, he tripped up and fell to the cement sidewalk and sent his books skittering out from his hands. Everyone's attention that was nearby turned to the downed Clark Kent. "It's a statistical fact." Chloe stated while taking the bill from Pete's fingers. "Clark Kent can't get within five feet of Lana Lang without turning into a freak show." She stated in a sort of triumphant for winning the bet. From behind, Lara rolled her eyes and then reached out and grabbed the five from Chloe's hand whiel walking between her two friends. "Hey!" Chloe cried out as her friend walked off with her money.

Lara turned about while still walking and smiled while waving the five. "My brother, my money." She stated while then turning about to finish her walk towards her brother. As Lara approached, she started to feel rather sick to her stomach and her body seemed tired and heavy the closer she got to her brother and Lana. Grimacing a bit, Lara looked up as she heard a male voice she somewhat knew speak.

Standing next to Lana Lang was Whitney Foreman, star quarter back for the Smallville football team. And sitting on the railing bordering the small lawn before the school, bent over with a somewhat sick look on his face, was her brother Clark Kent. Somehow Lara managed to finish out her walk and came to sit down next to Clark with the same look on her face and set a hand on his back. Clark looked over at his sister and tried to smile, even though he was completely embarrassed and not feeling all that well. The smile was returned and then Lara held out the five-dollar bill to her brother. "What's this?" Clark asked while taking and holding it still out in the open in question to his sister.

"Just something you earned." She replied while trying to smile for real, but it didn't work out that way as the sick feeling in her body was still there and bothered her greatly.

"Dude, you two feeling alright?" Whitney asked as he took notice of the two Kents and the way they looked sitting there on the railing. "You guys look like you're ready to hurl." He commented. When they both answered with a 'fine' in unison, Whitney's gaze lingered a bit on Lara as he had a question for her primarily. "Hey Lara, you trying out for the girl's soccer team this year?" he asked with a somewhat hopeful look on his face.

Lara looked over at Whitney with a half-hearted smile and shook her head. "I'm not sure." She answered in reply.

"Too bad. I'm sure the team could use someone like you on it for a season or two." Whitney stated with a genuine smile while then turning to Lana and gesturing with his head for them to head inside. However, he stopped a moment and bent down to pick up a red book that Clark hadn't gathered up after falling. "You forgot one Clark." He said whiel turning around and then tossed it at him.

Clark went to catch it, only to find that his sense of balance and coordination was still off and fell to the ground re-spilling his books to the sidewalk again in an attempt to try and catch the tossed book. Whitney only gave a quirked smile before wrapping an arm around Lana's shoulders to walk her off with him towards the front doors of the school. Almost as soon as Lana and Whitney left, Clark and Lana could feel that sick feeling leave them as they returned to normal as far as normal for them went. Crouching down beside her fallen brother, Lara helped him gather up his books all over again while offering him a sympathetic smile before they stood up. Lara, like Chloe and Pete, knew that Clark had a crush on Lana Lang ever since her and her Aunt Nell moved in next door to their farm about a mile away. But no matter how much Clark liked Lana there was one thing keeping him from attempting to ask Lana or out or getting to know her a bit better – Whitney Foreman. After Clark stood up with his books restacked and in his arms again, he looked over at his sister as she stood up beside him. "You don't seem that bothered by it." He commented while swinging his backpack back on to his shoulder.

Lara gave him a confused look to this as they started to walk towards the front entrance of the school side by side. "What are you talking about?" she asked while taking the cement steps two at a time and then held open the door for her brother to safely pass through in a hidden tease to his twice fallen act outside.

"Come on Lara, you know what I'm talking about." Clark stated as they headed towards their lockers. "The soccer team, tryouts, any of this ringing a bell?" he asked sarcastically as they turned a corner.

"Oh." Lara mused quietly to herself partially as it 'dawned on her' as to what he was referring to even though she knew what he was talking about at the first question. "That thing, right." She grinned while glancing over to see Clark roll his eyes in response.

It wasn't any real secret about Lara's want to tryout for the soccer team to both him, their friends, or their parents. And the truth was, Lara was actually really good at soccer and would more than likely make the team if she tried out. A lot of other people knew of Lara's talent with the black and white ball, Whitney of course being one of them, only because often at times she would goof around after school out on the field during junior high and her last two years of grade school. But no matter how much she wanted to try out or people wanted her to try out, there was one thing keeping Lara from soccer just like Clark was kept from football no matter how great of a player he would be, and it was called – Dad.

Stopping at their lockers, which happened to be right next to each other's, Lara quickly found the combination on the lock and opened the door. "It doesn't bother me as much the less I think about it, but when people ask me if I'm going to tryout and stuff, then it does sort of bother me I guess." She finally answered Clark's question while pulling out several books from her locker. "Why do you ask?"

Clark finished shoving the last of his books into his locker and closed the door before looking over at his sister who was busy with organizing the inside of her backpack. "Because you were trying to help out this morning with convincing dad in letting me tryout for football. So I was just wondering." He explained.

Pausing a moment before shutting her locker door, Lara sighed and then looked over at her brother. "You really want to tryout for football, and not just because you don't want to be this year's Scarecrow, don't you?" she asked while then closing her locker door and picked her backpack up to slip the strap over her shoulder. When Clark nodded slowly, Lara only gave him a small smile. "I wanted to at least try to help you out, even though I knew we would fall flat on our face." Lara stated while starting to walk towards homeroom. "I even tried to get us pizza tonight too." She added as Clark jogged to catch up with her.

Clark laughed at what his sister had said while remembering her reaction earlier that morning to the 'no pizza' statement their mother had given them at breakfast. As the Kents headed off for homeroom like everyone else as the bell suddenly rang out through the halls of the school, no seemed to really notice a student staring in at the trophy case containing past awards won by the football team along with photographs of star players from pervious years before. When the halls finally cleared and the last classroom door shut behind a student, that same young man continued to stare in at the photograph of three jocks from nearly twelve year ago or so. Without any warning, the young man punched a hand into the glass of the case, shattering it and sending a spray of glass into the cabinet itself. A black handkerchief had been wrapped around his hand to protect the flesh from the sharp pieces. Reaching into the case, the young man pulled out the photograph of the three players and stared at it with a satisfied smirk on his face before walking off.

* * *

By the end of the school day, things had gone a bit better than they had first started off with. When the final class of the day finally let out, everyone went somewhere else other than straight home. If you were a jock of some kind, you went to wherever it was that you had practice or tryouts. Cheerleader, it was either tryouts, practice, or watching the male jocks practice their certain sports. If it happened that you were apart of a club of some kind, you had an activity you were involved with that was going to take up another good portion of your day before you headed home to get a boat load of homework done. However, for Clark and Lara Kent, none of these things were apart of their day as they just decided to head home. They had chores that needed to be done around the farm while also helping out their dad with anything that needed to have their help in. The day hadn't really been one of the best for them, and a bit of a depressed mood had come over the two as they skipped the bus and walked. Somewhere along the trek home, the two siblings had veered off and stopped at a bridge crossing one of several rivers running through Smallville.

The brother and sister duo stood on the bridge side by side, just staring out across the water without a word passing between them. Clark was leaning forward against the railing of the bridge with his arms crossed atop it, while Lara sat on the railing facing out towards the water with her feet dangling down. They were lost in thoughts of their own, and not even the sounds of an approaching semi carrying rolls of barbed wire on its flat bed or the distant approach of a very expensive sports car. As the semi passed behind them, it managed to hit a small bump in the road, which jiggled loose a small roll of the razor wire enough for it to roll off the bed and land in the middle of the road. The expensive sports car that was now ready to pass across the bridge at an extremely fast speed, and was headed straight for the roll of razor wire sitting in the road. Before the driver could slow sown enough to get around the roll of wire he had to slam on the brakes and hope for the best as the wheels rolled over the wire and popped immediately. The commotion behind them on the road had both Clark and Lara looking back over their shoulders to see what was going on. The sports car swerved still going an extreme speed even with the brakes applied and headed straight for the spot in which was located the Kent teens. Lara didn't have any time to get off the railing, and Clark certainly didn't have it to get out of the way when the car struck them both and broke through the railing barrier taking the two with it right into the water below.

Hitting the water with a huge splash following right after it, Lara popped back up a few seconds later miraculously, sputtering river water from her mouth and started to look around frantically for her brother. "Clark!" she called out his name and turned about in the deep cold water looking for her brother. The fear that he hadn't been as lucky as she did was overwhelming her since she couldn't see him.

Almost on cue, Clark's head popped up out of the water and coughed out a mouthful of river water while the shaking his head to get his hair out of his eyes. "Lara!" he called his sister's name and got her attention on him as she spun about in water to see where it was he was at.

"Clark!" Lara swam over to her brother and looked him over quickly. "Are you okay?" she asked with a look of concern on her face while treading water in front of him. Clark only nodded after making sure his sister was okay as well. "What happened?" Lara asked while looking around before it hit her and then looked over at Clark with a rather pale face. "Clark, the guy who was driving the car!"

Before anything else could be said between them, Clark took a breath and then dove down into the water with Lara following after him. Down on the bottom of the river the two found the wrecked sports car and its driver still strapped inside unconscious. Swimming closer, Lara grabbed a hold of the lip of the roof where the window had been busted out, and then pulled it back like a lid on a can of food. This cleared the way for Clark to reach in and rip the seatbelt off the driver and then pull him out. Breaking the surface of the water, Clark swam towards the shore with the driver in his hold. On the gravel shore of the river, Clark laid the driver out on his back. Lara came to sit down on her knees beside the unconscious driver who wasn't breathing. Lara checked his pulse quickly before opening the guy's mouth and closing her mouth over his to start CPR. Blowing into his mouth twice, Lara pulled away as Clark started to push on his chest to force out the water that had collected within his lungs.

"Come on, don't die on me." Clark stated under his breath while giving one final push on the guy's chest. That last push forced out the water in one giant cough as the guy came too finally. Clark gave a sigh of relief and looked over at his sister who smiled a bit in the same sense of relief that he had.

The driver of the now wrecked car was a man no more than maybe five even seven years older than both Clark and Lara, maybe somewhere in his early or mid twenties. For as young as he did indeed look, his head was completely bald but yet he still had a rather handsome look that was mature and almost dignified. Lara looked down at the driver of the car that had hit them as he coughed a few more times to make sure that the water was all gone, and as he turned his head towards the people who saved him, his eyes fell upon the first face hovering above him. Staring into a pair of rather exotic blue that stared back at him from the face of an attractive young woman with dark hair hanging limp about her face, a somewhat strange sense of awe came over him as for a moment he figured he had died, gone to heaven and now had possibly an angel looking at him before realizing of course that he was wrong. Her eyes held his a gaze a moment longer as she smiled a bit at him before looking away towards the other beside her who had a part in his survival after the accident. The driver's eyes flickered over to who it was that the girl was staring at. A young man around her age in appearance with the same eye and hair color was staring at her with a tired look and then looked down at the guy they had just saved.

"I could have sworn I hit you." The driver stated while looking between the two teens sitting beside him with a confused look on his face.

This had the two Kents thinking a minute before looking at each other as they realized something and then back to the driver they had rescued. Clark was the one to speak up first. "If you did, we'd be –" Clark paused a moment as his brow furrowed in confusion.

"We'd be dead." Lara finished while then turning partially to look back at the bridge where there was a huge hole busted out of the bridge railing as it dawned on her the reality of their situation. Looking back over at Clark she had a look on her face that was a bit startled and afraid.

Clark looked from his sister with an unsure look back to the driver they had saved. Well, first things first, they needed to get some help for this guy and that was what Clark figured he have his sister do since the look she was now getting from this unknown guy was starting annoy Clark a bit for some reason. The driver of the wrecked car was staring at Lara with a hidden smile that was starting to grow more apparent. Clark secretly elbowed his sister to get her attention as it had somehow drifted down to the guy staring at her. "Lara, go see if you can flag someone down on the road to call help." He stated in suggestion to her while gesturing with his head in the direction of the road while the look in his eyes said something else aside from flagging someone down.

Nodding to this while also winking at him with the eye that couldn't be seen, Lara got up off her knees and started up the slope towards the road. As soon as she was up on the road and out of sight, Lara took off down the road in a blur of red before coming to a stop about a mile from the bridge as she saw a tow truck turning onto the road she was on. Coming to running stop, Lara stepped off to the side and waved her hand above her head to flag down the truck. As soon as the truck came to a stop beside her, Lara ran around to the driver side as the window was rolled down.

"What's wrong?" the middle-aged male driver asked while leaning out the window, he could see that she was somewhat wet (since running at the high velocity that she had traveled at had nearly dried her off).

"There was a car accident up a mile on Lake Bridge." She explained quickly with a look on her face as she stared up at him from the ground.

The tow truck driver took a serious look on his face and then motioned with his hand for her to get inside. Lara smiled broadly in relief while going back around to the other side and got in the cab of the truck. As the tow truck driver pulled back on to the road he got onto his CB radio and called in the car accident along with a request for medical help out on Lake Bridge. By the time the tow truck arrived at the bridge, the driver of the car was sitting up on the shore with Clark, the only injury to him was a cut on the cheek. As soon as the truck came to a stop Lara jumped out of the passenger side and made her way back down to where her brother was at, sliding most of the way on her feet as the gravel and dirt was a bit slippery under the soles of her shoes. Upon the arrival of the tow truck, both Clark and the guy he saved looked up at the top where the road was located and watched as the dark haired teen girl appeared.

The driver of the car looked over at Clark. "Your sister moves fast." He stated with a small smile on his face.

Clark only smiled nervously in return to this statement even though this guy more than likely meant that she had brought back help pretty fast. Which of course was a good thing and all. Lara came up to the two and stopped just a few feet from them with a smile meant for good news on the way. "The tow truck driver I flagged down called in for someone to come out this way about five minutes ago." She explained while coming to sit down next to her brother.

Before another word was exchanged between the small party, sirens could be heard in the distance as they approached in response to the CB call that the tow truck driver had broadcasted. In a few moments an ambulance, a few police cars, and even a fire truck had pulled up on the bridge and the side road. The medics had brought down several blankets for the still somewhat wet three while checking them all over for signs of injury, and a police officer made call to the Kent Farm to inform the parents of the brother and sister about what had happened and for someone to come get them. During the whole time they were still sitting down on the riverside in which the two siblings had introduced themselves to the guy they had saved. In return the driver introduced himself as Lex Luthor. Whiel they waited down on the shore of the river for their dad to arrive, Clark kept his sister close at hand as something was starting to bother him a bit more now. Neither one of them seemed bothered by the cold wet clothes they were in. In fact they weren't even shivering at all. However, the other thing that was bothering him was the fact he knew the car had hit them dead on and yet both of them were still alive without a scratch on them. Clark hid this concern for the most part as he stared off at the river water, while Lara on the other hand seemed to be doing the same but every once in a while she would steal a glance over at Lex. Every time she looked over at him, she caught his gaze focused on her or maybe both her and her brother, but for some reason she couldn't help but wonder if he was staring at her.

"Clark! Lara!" a voice called out from the side road above them on the top of the slope, causing both to turn their heads over their shoulder and up towards the person calling out to them. Their dad had arrived finally and was now coming down the embankment straight towards them with a worried look on his face. As soon as Lara stood, Jonathan had grabbed her in a massive hug before holding her out at arm's length to look her over. "Are you okay?" he asked in complete and total worry after what he had been told by the police over the phone. When Lara assured him she was fine, Jonathan looked over at his son who had now also stood to his feet, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Clark, you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah dad." He answered while giving an assuring look along with a nod of his head.

Jonathan smiled at his two children and then looked over his shoulder at the police that were coming down behind him. "Whose the maniac that was driving that car?" he asked of the nearest officer.

Before the officer could answer, the driver of the wrecked car stood up, the blanket wrapped about him dropping to the ground. "That would be me." He stated whiel coming over towards the small family. Jonathan's attention had turned around immediately to the guy who had answered his question and now had a hand out stretched towards him. "Lex Luthor." He greeted, only to have the look on Jonathan's face suddenly fall a bit before it took on a very stern look.

Looking at his kids, Jonathan gestured with his head towards the top of the embankment. "Clark, Lara, come on. Let's go home." He stated while turning them both about and guiding them up towards the side road and completely ignored Lex Luthor's offered handshake. However as he looked up at his daughter, he took notice of the look on Lara's face that was a bit stern, just like her mother's when she was trying to make a point. Sighing quietly and smiling in defeat at his daughter, Jonathan stopped and then turned around to face Lex. "Jonathan Kent. I'm Clark and Lara's father." He introduced himself rather quickly and bluntly before starting to turn back around to follow his kids up the bank.

"Mr. Kent I'm indebted to your son and daughter for saving my life. If there's anything I can do in return –" Lex was suddenly cut off as Jonathan nearly whirled back around to face him.

"Don't worry Mr. Luthor we won't be looking for any favors from you." Jonathan stated in ending of their conversation and then hiked back up the slope after his kids who were already up on the road and heading for the pickup truck.

At that moment the crane that had arrived to haul the wrecked sports car out of the river, pulled the automobile up out of the river water causing Lex to look over at the sound of the water rushing out of the busted windows. The nose of the car was scrunched up from hitting the guardrail, but the odd thing was that the roof of the car starting at the window shield was pulled back as if it were some sort of can lid. Lex raised a curious brow to this and then turned his attention up at the side road where the pickup truck the Kents had gotten into was now pulling away and out on to the main road.


	3. Findings

**Chapter Two **

**_Findings_**

When Clark and Lara were brought home, they were nearly smothered by their mother before they were even two feet from the car door. Her worry for the safety of her only two children had begun the moment the Kent Farm had received a call from the sheriff concerning a car accident out on Lake Bridge and had yet to subside even with the two of them home safe and sound. Martha had both her children in a hug at the same time, which was rather remarkable considering the fact that both of them were much taller than her. "Oh god, I was so worried about the two of you." Martha stated while finally releasing her children to look them over. "Are you okay?" she asked noting that they were both still a little wet.

"The sheriff said they jumped in to save Lex Luthor after the accident happened." Jonathan explained while coming around to the passenger side of the truck where his family stood, and gave Clark and Lara a look that was both proud and yet a bit stern at the same time as he wasn't exactly thrilled to know that they had jumped into a river to save someone like Lex Luthor. Then again, he wasn't the type of father to raise his children to pick and choose who it was they helped or saved, and it didn't matter who they were. So he was more relieved that they were without injury and proud that they had done something so selfless.

Martha looked between both Clark and Lara with a somewhat shocked look on her face that held a sense of pride even though it was hidden under all the worry, concern, and now shock. Clark gave his mom a weak smile in response to this while then jabbing his sister with his elbow to get her to say something for them. Whenever there was an awkward situation, Clark always looked to Lara to do something or in this case say something. After receiving the jab to her side, Lara shot a glare over at him quickly only to have him give her an urgent look while indicating towards their mother with a gesture of his eyes. Looking back to her mom, Lara lost her glare and gave her a small smile.

"Well, the water was nice." Lara said as she tried to ease the mood but only received a stern look from both her mom and dad for this. Sighing, Lara's shoulders dropped a bit before she straightened herself and tried to explain their side of the story. "What were we supposed to do? He would have more than likely died down there if we didn't do something." Lara pointed out while defending herself and Clark at the same time. But the look on her parent's faces still wasn't changing in response to this. "He didn't see us do anything since he was unconscious." She added in quickly while hoping this would at least settle some their worries.

For once, it actually worked, as both Martha and Jonathan seemed a bit more relieved now knowing that their son and daughter's secrets weren't exposed while doing the right thing in saving Lex Luthor. Martha only sighed and shook her head a bit at them before giving them another hug. "Come on, let's get you two inside and out of those wet clothes." She suggested while then turning her family about and guided them towards the farmhouse.

That night after the whole event at the bridge, Clark headed out to the barn after dinner and went straight up to the loft his father had built for him and Lara back when they were still little. Jonathan now called it their 'Fortress of Solitude', since both would retreat there to be alone by themselves or be alone together when life just got to be too much for them. Clark had taken to the loft first since it was Lara's turn to do the dishes that night anyways, and went straight for his telescope to gaze out at the stars. For a time he stared up at the celestial bodies, watching them, spotting the various constellations, but then Clark found his telescope drifting away from the stars and down towards the home of Lana Lang. His telescope came down just in time to see Lana come outside the front door and sit down on the porch bench with a cup in her hands. A smile started to grow on Clark's face as he watched her, but the smile soon disappeared as Whitney suddenly showed up out of nowhere and bent down to kiss Lana on the cheek.

"I didn't know stars were this low."

Clark nearly jumped at the sound of his sister's voice talking to him from behind and then turned away from his telescope quickly while trying to act natural. "Hey, Lara. Done with the dishes already?" he asked while stepping away from the telescope and going over to the old desk that was set up there for them to use when doing homework.

Lara raised a brow at her brother's reaction to her appearance and walked across the floor of the loft towards him in a casual manner. "Yeah." She replied to his question while then switching directions quickly to run over to the telescope. Seeing his sister run for the telescope, Clark panicked and ran after her, only to arrive too late as she had already set her eye upon the lens and looked to see what it was he had been looking at. "Hey, did you know you can see Lana's house from here?" Lara asked in a sarcastic manner that was in more of a tease as she glanced over at her brother who was at her side looking a bit nervous. "Clark, it is no big secret from me that you like Lana. So why do you keep trying to hide it?" she asked while standing up straight and held a puzzled look on her face.

Shrugging his shoulders, Clark shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans while stepping around his sister to come and sit upon the sill of the hay door's closed bottom half. "I don't know. I just didn't want you to think I was some hopeless lovesick idiot or something like that." He answered while looking out at the night sky. It was a really clear night and you could see the stars even without the aid of a telescope, but it helped to have one when you wanted to see them really close.

Shaking her head in slight amusement to this, Lara sighed and came over to sit opposite of her brother on the sill. "Clark I'm your sister, I'm supposed to tease you about stuff like this every once in a while." She stated while giving a smile. "But I would never do anything intentionally to hurt your feelings, and there's nothing that you could do that would make me think less of you." Lara explained while staring over at him with a smile still on her face. It was true, Lara had always looked up to her big brother and probably always would even when they were adults, and aside from their dad, Clark was the only other man in her life she admired and adored. And it showed through the bond that she had with her brother ever since childhood.

Clark looked away from the stars and over at his sister with a smile on his face. Somehow she managed to say the right things when they needed to be said in almost any situation. "I hate it when you do that." He teased. "I feel like I have to say something back every time."

"Clark I don't love you for the praise and appreciation." Lara stated with half serious look on her face as she stood up. "I love you because you're my brother and it is really hard to try and not to." She added in with good humor to try and get him to laugh, which she succeeded in doing as he laughed in response to her ending comment.

Grinning up at her, Clark stood up as well and tussled her hair with his hand. "And it's hard on my part to do the same." He restated the comment as he meant it for her.

While Lara ducked out from under Clark's hand to free her hair of his self-imposed styling, she pointed over at the telescope with her finger. "Go spy on Lana and leave my hair alone." She stated while turning on her heel and started towards the stairs to take herself back down to the barn floor. She stopped at the top the stairs and looked back over her shoulder at Clark just as he was stepping over towards the telescope again. "Oh yeah, mom sent me out here to tell you that there's desert if you want it." Lara grinned impishly after this. "But since you're too busy staring at Lana, I'll just let her know you said I could have yours." And with that Lara zipped down the stairs and out the barn door with that super speed of hers.

"Lara Jean Kent!" Clark called after her and then followed in the same fashion only to come up on her just seconds after she set foot back inside the house. "Do not even try it." He warned while coming up from behind and grabbed her in a bear hug that was meant more for restraining her than anything else.

"I wasn't going to do anything." She protested in defense while trying to act innocent as their mother had turned away from the coffee pot with a mug in her hand and a raised eyebrow at the two of them standing just inside the doorway. Seeing her mother's look, Lara raised her hands in a defensive manner at her sides since Clark had her arms clamped down. "Honest." She stated in response to the look on her mother's face.

Martha only shook her head while grinning a bit as she passed by them to head out to the porch and sit down on the bench. "Just don't break anything." She reminded them while walking out the door and let it close behind her.

Clark looked down at his sister with a warning look on his face that was beyond from being serious. "Yeah Lara, don't break anything." To which he had his sister looking up at him with a glare before he released her finally.

"I haven't broken anything in nearly two months Clark Joseph Kent." Lara retorted, while also getting back for him using her full name the first time around. "And I was only kidding about the whole desert thing." She added in while heading over to the fridge and pulling the door open to get the cherry pie out their mom had baked earlier that day. Bringing it over to the kitchen island; Lara set it down and then reached back over to shut the refrigerator.

"Uh-hu." Clark gave her a speculative look while grabbing the pie server out of the drawer near the coffee pot and then came over to the island to cut out their pieces. Both had similar appetites in the sense that they could eat a big meal and still have room for desert later on, and then they burned it all off rather quickly. Something they figured was a result of the fact that they were able to move so fast and strong enough to lift tractors. So the pieces that Clark cut for the both of them were slightly bigger than what most people would take for desert even when they had saved room after a meal.

Lara took her piece after setting out plates for them to use and then grabbed a fork out of the same drawer Clark had gotten the pie server from. Both brother and sister sat at the island and ate their desert while not really exchanging words between each other. It was a little weird not to be talking about something, but the day had ended on such a rather freaky event that was still bothering them both. Lex had hit them at sixty miles an hour and yet they hadn't received a scratch or anything, and this worried them more than anything else. Lara looked over at the door to see if anyone was coming in, and then set her fork down on her plate and looked over at Clark "What happened out on that bridge?" she asked in a hushed tone of voice while leaning a bit closer to him so that way their conversation stayed out of their mother's hearing.

The question was something that Clark was trying to avoid for the rest of the night, but when Lara brought it up like that, he only set his own fork down and looked over at her to see the small amount of fear in her eyes. He didn't blame her for being freaked out, but now it looked more like she was scared over it all. "I don't know." He replied in the same quiet manner while shaking his head. "But whatever happened, happened to the both of us." He pointed out while setting a hand on his sister's shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. "We'll figure it out, or try to." Clark assured the best he could and offered a half-hearted smile as well. "At least we're not alone in all of this. I don't think it would be any easier for either one of us if we weren't here for each other."

Lara tried to smile at this, but it came rather weakly and Clark only gave her shoulder another squeeze before removing it. "I guess you're right." She agreed while picking her fork up and cut a small piece of her pie with its edge.

* * *

It was around three in the morning when Lara Kent woke with a start to find she was staring down at her bed, after which her eyes became rather wide for a moment before she came crashing down on to the mattress. After her landing, the bed somehow managed to stay in tacked while Lara found her face buried within her pillow and then pushed her upper body up off the bed with her arms. Waiting for a moment, her body having gone entirely still and not even moving in a slight tremble, Lara breathed a sigh of relief five minutes later when her dad or Clark didn't come in looking to see what was wrong. Sighing to herself, Lara flopped down while rolling on to her back and then looked over at her alarm clock. The glowing red numbers stared back at her with **3:45am **glaring in the darkness of the wee morning hours when even the sun wasn't up. Shaking her head, Lara stared up at the ceiling and with a confused look crossing her face as she was trying to figure out what had just happened. Was she just floating over the bed not but a few minutes ago? How was that even possible? "Just a weird dream." Lara murmured to herself while rubbing a hand over her eyes and then sat up in bed.

There was something else that still bothered her and it was about what happened the other day at the bridge. It still didn't make any sense as to how both she and Clark survived being hit dead on by a car going at least sixty when it struck them. Not only that, they were pushed through steel railing before hitting the water. Well, whatever the reason, Lara knew she wasn't going to be falling asleep any time soon before she had to get up at six to get ready for school. Tossing aside the bed spread, Lara quietly got out of bed and tip toed over to her closet, which was standing open. Reaching in she grabbed the red sweatshirt hanging off the door hook and pulled it on over her white pajama tank top, and then located a pair of jeans she quickly changed into out of the flannel pajama pants she was wearing. Grabbing a pair of shoes on her way out of the bedroom, Lara snuck down the stairs successfully and headed into the kitchen. No one was up yet, not even her parents. Pulling her shoes on, Lara then managed to somehow make it out of the house through the kitchen door and then jumped off the porch without even using the steps, something that had sort become her trademark when she wanted to get moving. Looking back at the house, Lara only hope she wouldn't freak her parents out too bad if they woke up and found her missing, and then raced off across the farm and through the cornfield across the way as she headed out to Lake Bridge.

In only a minute flat, Lara came to a stop at the same bridge that the car accident had occurred upon. It was still dark out, but not so dark she couldn't see anything, as the sky was a bit grey rather than pitch black. Looking around just to confirm the fact that there was no one else out there as well, Lara walked over to the bent out busted gap in the guard railing and stopped. Standing just a few feet back from it, Lara stared at the hole and studied it for a moment in silence. Something just didn't seem right about all of this. There was no way they should have survived being hit like that, not that Lara wasn't grateful that they had and all. As she continued to stare at the scene of the accident, Lara was unaware of the approaching footsteps that were coming up behind her at that moment until a voice spoke up.

"I didn't think anyone else would be out here at this time of the morning."

Lara jumped as she had been completely caught off guard, and spun about to see who it was that was talking to her after showing up out of nowhere. Her eyes had that whole 'deer-caught-in-the-headlights' look to them as she stared at the same man she had a hand in saving the other day. Lex Luthor was standing about five feet from her, dressed in a suit of sorts with a long black coat covering him, and hands casual placed within the pockets of his dress pants. A bit of a smile was on his face as he stared at the girl he had just about frightened completely. Lara gave him a sheepish smile and then out of nervous reaction crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, well, I could say the same thing about you. Where did you come from?" She replied while trying the best she could in not sounding completely spent of nerve.

"Down on the river bank." Lex only smirked a bit while now walking closer towards her and then stopped just at her side to look over the edge of the railing down at the dark water below. "That was a long fall." He commented while then looking up and over at Lara. "I don't think I would have willing jumped in without second thought to save someone." Lex stated while studying the look on Lara's face, as she appeared to still be a bit startled from his sudden appearance.

"Oh well, you know, adrenaline is a funny thing." Lara stated in return while looking away from Lex and over at the gaping hole in the railing again. His gaze wasn't uncomfortable to be under or anything, it was just that Lara wasn't sure on how she should act around someone with the last name of Luthor attached to the first. After a fleeting moment of silence passed between them, Lara looked over at Lex from the corner of her eye. "So, what are you doing out here anyways?" she asked.

"Most likely for the same reasons as yourself." Lex answered while walking around behind Lara to come and stand at her other side to look at the break from a different angle. "I've been here for a while. I wanted to see what I could find here concerning the accident yesterday, before traffic started up." He looked away from the railing and back over at the teen beside him. "It's Lara, right?" he asked to confirm what he figured was right, but wanted be sure of it before saying anything else. When she nodded a 'yes' in return, Lex only smiled. "Lara, I don't know how I could ever thank you or your brother for what you did. You saved my life and put your own in danger to do so. I don't think anyone has ever done that for me." Lex stated while stepping a bit closer to her.

Lara swallowed a bit hard as she wasn't entirely sure what to say. "I don't think that's true." She replied while finding a way to somehow to start talking to him without acting so nervous. "I'm sure you have personal security that put themselves in harms way to protect you when you're out and about." Lara pointed out not really knowing if this was entirely true or not for the most part. But since he was Lex Luthor, she had to assume there was the possibility that she could be right.

However, Lex only laughed a bit in response to this. "I see the reputation of the Luthor name proceeds me even here in Smallville." He stated while grinning at Lara. "I suppose you would be right, but I think from what happened yesterday you can safely assume that I'm not surrounded twenty-four seven with security."

Lara smiled at this while running a hand through her dark hair and then refolded her arms across her chest again. "Yeah I guess." She agreed slightly while looking out towards the horizon for a moment before looking over at Lex again. "Can I ask you question?" she asked while holding a passive look on her face, but she could feel her cheeks starting to warm a bit when she turned to see that Lex was staring at her even when the conversation had dropped for a moment.

"You already have been for the past twenty minutes." Lex pointed while again grinning at her. "I don't see why you couldn't ask one more."

A small-embarrassed laugh was kept trapped behind Lara's lips before she spoke up again. "What brings someone like you out a place like Smallville anyways?" she asked hoping it didn't sound too nosey for the most part.

Lex only smiled at her before turning his own gaze away, and out towards the horizon like Lara had done a moment ago. "Business, I guess you could call it." He answered. "But I'm sure my father as another term or title to be used." He added in while looking over at Lara again. "And it's safe to assume that you're a Smallville native yourself?" A nod from Lara confirmed this to which only Lex smiled at. "Well, if you don't mind me asking a question now, how did you get here? I didn't hear or see a car pull up." He stated while looking around just to make sure he was right in this statement following the question.

At this Lara went a bit rigid for a moment and all thought left her brain as she uttered a small "uh" to stall for time to think this over quickly. "I ran." She finally answered while uncrossing her arms and sticking her hands within the front pouch of her sweatshirt.

An amused brow was raised as Lex took this answer in. "You ran?" he asked in restatement to make sure he heard her right, and when she again nodded, his brow wrinkled a bit as this was rather perplexing to say the least since she didn't seem to be out of breath when he found her. "You must live pretty close to have run here." He commented while also waiting to see how she would further explain this to him.

"Sort of." Lara replied while now trying to hide how nervous she was becoming at that moment in trying to explain away how she got there while not having Lex become suspicious of her any further than already ways after yesterday. "I live on Hickory Lane."

Both Lexs' brows rose upon hearing this. He wasn't too familiar with the area yet, but he did know that Lake Bridge was a good long distance from Hickory Lane from his own understanding. Either Lara was a really fast runner of some kind, or she wasn't telling him the whole truth as to how she got there. "Hickory Lane? Isn't that a good ten miles or so from here?" he asked, now trying to get a further explanation out of this girl he only knew by name for a little over a half hour now.

Lara bit the inside of her bottom lip before answering. She knew that this was starting to become a sticky situation. "I think so. But I try and get up in the early morning to go out and run." She stated to save herself, and apparently Lex seem to be buying into it for the moment as he nodded his head at this. "Well, uh, I think I better head back home or my parents are going to wake up and start wondering what happened to me." Lara said while she went to turn to start leaving, only to stop when Lex called her name to get her attention.

"Lara, why don't I give you a ride? It's the least I can do." Lex stated while nodding over towards the other side of the bridge where a silver sports car sat in park.

A brow was raised in Lara's part as she looked over at the car, as she couldn't seem to figure out why she hadn't seen it when she first got there. Looking over at Lex as she tried to hide her confusion about the car, Lara only nodded her head shortly. "Yeah, sure, thanks."

Lex only nodded in response before taking the lead towards the parked vehicle and pulled out a set of keys from his coat pocket. Pushing a button on the small remote that was connected to his key chain, Lex unlocked the car and disabled the alarm as Lara followed after him and came around to the passenger side to get in. With Lara giving him directions, Lex sped off towards the Kent Farm. It took about ten minutes before Lara had Lex stop a good thirty feet from the driveway itself. "I can take you all the way up to the house." Lex stated even though he complied with Lara's request and put the car into park for the moment.

"I know, it's just that, if my dad is awake and working, I don't think he'd be too thrilled to see me getting out of your car." She explained while unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the door. "Thanks for the ride Lex."

"No problem." He stated while watching her get out and shut the door. Once she was out of the car, Lara gave him a small wave in gesture of 'good-bye' and Lex did the same before turning his car around and headed back to turn back onto the main road.

As soon as his car was starting to turn onto the main road, Lara sped off towards the farmhouse, disappearing from sight faster than a blink of an eye and reappearing in the yard between the house and the barn. Walking up the porch steps, Lara was just about to grab the handle of the screen door when she heard name called out by her father's voice as he was emerging from the barn. Cringing a bit, Lara slowly turned around and smiled weakly at her dad as he neared the porch steps. "Morning dad." She stated while hoping he wasn't angry at her for having taken off so early in the morning.

"Lara, where have you been?" he asked while coming up the steps of the porch and then stopped to stand before her with a stern look on his face. He was waiting for an explanation from her and it showed in how he stood there staring at his teen daughter.

"I went for a run." She answered, but when her dad gave her an even sterner look than before she finished her reply all the way. "To the bridge."

Jonathan Kent sighed while dropping the look a degree and shook his head. "Why?" he asked while gesturing for her to go inside and then held the screen door after she opened it and entered.

Lara pushed open the wooden door next and then answered his question. "I wanted to check something out." She stated while entering the kitchen and then stopped to turn and face her dad as he came in after her. "That's all."

"Lara," Jonathan started while going over to the coffee pot and turned it on to start the morning's brew before turning back around to look at his daughter who staring after him. Seeing the down look on her face, Jonathan could tell she was sorry for having left like that and just sighed while coming over and setting his hands on her shoulders. "The next time you decided to take off in the morning before the rest of us are up, make sure you leave a note behind so we know where you are. Okay?"

"Okay." Lara replied while giving her dad a small smile. "I'm sorry I took off and made you worry." She apologized and then gave him a hug.

Jonathan hugged her back with a smile on his face. "I know you are." He stated while then pulling back from her a bit to kiss her forehead. "Now, come on outside and help your old man with the tractor."

Lara grinned at him as they broke their hug and headed outside. "What's wrong with it this time?" she asked while actually using the porch steps for once.

"Not sure. The old girl won't start up." He stated while walking beside Lara across the yard and into the barn itself where the tractor was kept when not in use. "I checked the spark plugs, the oscillator, the fan belt, and everything else that would keep the tractor from starting. Nothing looks like its needs to be fixed."

The two stopped just before the giant piece of machinery and stared at it for a moment as if judging what to do. After a few minutes of thoughtful silence between them, Lara went around to the front of the tractor and lifted up the right side hood to look in at the engine. Reaching a hand in while looking about with her eyes, Lara touched a few things to make sure they were in place and secured, and then dropped the hood to go around to the other side. Lifting the left hood up, Lara looked things over on that side too, but then paused a moment as her eyes came to rest on something that looked to be a bit loose. Reaching in, Lara used her fingers to tighten a wire and then dropped the hood. Getting up on the tractor seat, Lara turned the key and the tractor started up. A triumphant smile came across her face at this before turning the tractor off and then hoped down. Jonathan laughed while shaking his head. Whenever there was a probably with a piece of machinery on the farm it was always Lara who was able to fix it somehow and get it working right.

"Thanks sweetie." Jonathan stated while giving his daughter a sideways hug. "I don't know what we'd do without you." He commented while smiling at her.

"Not very much I'll tell you that." Lara teased in response. "And Clark would never get to the school on time no matter how fast he can run." She added in as a joke towards her brother's habit of being late for the school bus and even at times for school itself even though neither one of them had ever missed a day of school in their life.

Jonathan only laughed again before telling Lara to go get her chores done before getting ready for school. It took her maybe a few minutes to get several of them done before Clark finally joined her out on the farm to get his done as well. The two worked side by side for a good hour and a half before stopping and headed back to the house to get ready for school as it was now going on seven thirty. The bus was going to show up soon and as luck would more than likely have it, they were going to miss the bus all over again. And they did. Again the two were off and running across Smallville to make on time before the first bell rang. The second day of school wasn't as bad as the first, without any bridge accidents occurring on the way home.

Clark and Lara were walking up the long driveway, talking about an assignment handed to them by their English teacher when Lara stopped walking all together and just stared ahead of them. Clark stopped next and looked back at his sister with a raised brow. "What are you doing?" he asked while then having her just point ahead in response. Clark followed her gaze and point of direction to see what it was that had stopped her like that.

Sitting in the driveway was a brand new red pickup truck. Clark's eyes widened a bit in a sense of excitement as he started walking forward again with a faster pace than before while Lara just kept still and stared at the truck a moment longer before chasing after Clark. Just as the two of them were coming up around the truck, Martha was climbing up onto the tractor. Clark kept walking towards his mom, but cast one last glance back over his shoulder at the truck. "Hey mom, whose truck?" he asked while coming up to the tractor.

"Yours." Martha stated while looking at both Clark and Lara as she sat down on the tractor seat and pulled the card in her front shirt pocket out. "It's a gift from Lex Luthor to the two of you." She said while handing the card over to Clark.

Lara's brow was a bit wrinkled as she came up beside her brother as he pulled the card out of the envelope it was in started reading it aloud. "Dear Clark and Lara, drive safe. Always in your debt, a maniac in a Porsche." Clark finished reading and looked over at his sister with a huge grin on his face before turning to look back at the truck behind them. "I don't believe it." He murmured in a sort of awe while that large grin remained on his face. "Where are the keys?" he asked while looking towards his mother again.

"Bet I know." Lara muttered while adjusting the strap of the backpack on her shoulder and looking towards the barn where she heard the wood chipper humming. If their mom hadn't hand them the keys at the same time with the card, then there was only one other person who could have them. Lara sighed while turning about and headed towards the house.

Clark raised a brow in response to his sister's statement and then looked at his mom again, who had stepped off the tractor and now placed a hand on his shoulder. "Your father has them." She answered while gesturing with her head towards the barn.

The look on Clark's face fell a bit as he now realized why Lara had said what she had said and then just went straight for the house without really waiting for an answer. Sighing to himself, Clark headed for the barn where his dad was pushing branches into the wood chipper at that moment. Lara had reached the stairs of the back porch when she heard the chipper turn off, and tossed her backpack up onto the swing bench before looking over her shoulder suddenly as she heard the chipper turn back on with gears and grinding saws suddenly groaning and straining. A sense of fear that something bad had happened came over Lara, and within a split second she was at the door of the barn causing her mother to become concerned at her daughter's sudden use of her incredible speed. Both mother and daughter stared in as Jonathan pulled Clark's hand out the chipper and turned the machine off.

"Is this normal!" Clark demanded in a loud voice as his dad looked over the unscathed arm he was holding. "Lara and I didn't jump in after Lex, the car hit us at sixty." He stated in explanation while yanking his arm back. "I'd give anything to be normal." Clark added in while then leaving his dad and running up the stairs to the loft.

Lara watched her brother with concerned look on her face and then looked over at her mom. "Mom, Clark's right. Lex's car hit us doing sixty." She stated while holding a look of both fear and concern on her face. Martha looked at her daughter with a look on her face that that was almost an exact copy of the one she had. But there was something else on her mother's face that Lara was starting to see now and then furrowed her brow. "Mom, what have you and dad been keeping from us?"

Martha blinked a few times at this. Sometimes it was a little scary how intuitive Lara was, and this was just one of those times. Jonathan looked over to where his wife and daughter were standing with a worried look on his face that showed he was at a loss on how to handle this. Martha only gave him a look that suggested something, and Lara's brow furrowed a bit to this as she looked between her parents. Before either one of them could say anything to her, Lara was gone and up the stairs of the loft to check on Clark in only a split second. Lara appeared up on the top of the landing and looked over at the couch, and there was Clark sitting on the old worn couch bent over with his arms resting atop his legs and staring down at the floor beneath his feet. A small sigh left her as she went over to the couch and sat down next to her brother. Putting a hand on his back, Lara didn't say anything but just rested her head on his shoulder.

It wasn't long before Jonathan appeared in the loft holding something in his hand wrapped up in a cloth. His gaze fell upon his son first who was sitting on the couch and then drifted over to the hay door where his daughter was sitting up on the sill and staring out across the farm property. Both were quiet and neither looked like they were ready to talk, but there was something that needed to said and explained to them now after everything that happened the day before. "Guys I think it's we had a talk." Jonathan stated while walking further into the loft.

Clark looked up from staring intently at the floor and glanced over at their dad. "Talk about what?" he asked, but knew it was about the whole arm into wood chipper thing along with the incident at the bridge yesterday. So the question was sort of redundant.

Lara glanced over from her position on the hay door with a passive look on her face for the most part while various thoughts and emotions were running through her. Jonathan sat down on the couch next to Clark and looked over at his daughter. "Come on sweetheart, you too." He nodded his head towards the empty space on Clark's right (the left from Lara's position).

Getting up from the sill, Lara made her way to the couch and sat down next to her brother while leaning forward to look over at what their dad had in his hands. "What is that?" she asked while raising a curious brow.

"Your mother and I found this when we found the two of you." Jonathan explained while unwrapping the object he had in his hand. Once the last fold dropped away, what was held in Jonathan's hand was a rectangular piece of polished metal that seemed to be solid with engraving running down either side of the face, while at the end of the piece was something that resembled something like a computer chip-like grid panel. "I think it's from your parents. Your real parents." Jonathan handed the metal object over to Clark who took it and looked it over. As Lara studied it as well, Jonathan only watched and waited for their first questions.

"What does it say?" Clark asked while looking over at his dad as Lara took the object from him.

Jonathan shrugged slightly while shaking his head right after. "I've tried to decipher it for years, but it's not written any language known to man." He stated while taking notice of the look on his daughter's face now.

When Lara had taken the object from Clark to look over, her fingers traced the engravings along the side as she stared at them, her blue eyes were starting to focus upon them in an intense gaze. As she stared, a sudden ache began to build up on either temple for a brief moment and then something flashed across the front of her mind like the recall of a photograph or scene from a movie. A red 'S', cornstalks, a Luthor Corp fertilizer plant sign, and then that was it as this odd scene ended causing Lara to snap to attention in a sort of sudden fright while dropping the metal panel she was holding. The panel hit the floor with a clatter causing Clark and Jonathan to look over at her with a few concerned looks on their faces. "Lara? Are you okay?" Jonathan asked while reaching over and putting a hand against her rather pale cheek.

Lara looked over at her dad and brother, a weak smile crossing her face as she nodded. "Yeah, it just slipped." She replied while reaching down and picking up the metal panel and then handed back over to her dad as she sat up.

Clark gave her speculative look but then just pushed it aside for the moment as he looked over at his dad. "So dad, what do you mean about the whole language thing?" he asked while handing the piece back over to him.

"Your real parents weren't exactly from around here." Jonathan stated slowly as he hoped this wouldn't go over badly with the two.

Both Clark and Lara raised their brows to this as they were beginning to take their dad's statements as some sort of joke or something now by the way he was talking. The color in Lara's face had returned and now she was giving her dad a somewhat unamused look to this whole beating around the bush thing, even though she knew he was trying to break something to them as gently as possible. It was definitely about their real parents so far, and now it looked like it was going to come around as to where the two of them were from. "Then where are they from?" Lara asked, only to have her answer come back with their dad looking up and out the hay door towards the sky.

Clark and Lara exchanged looks with each other before following their dad's gaze. Clark gave a small laugh and then looked over at their dad. "What are you trying to tell us dad? That we're from another planet?" he asked in a joke, only to have their dad look back at them with a look that said nothing against what had just been voiced. Even though this was starting to weird him out, Clark decided to play along in hopes that the next thing their dad would say was that he was just kidding. "And I suppose our spaceship is stored in the attic."

The next look off their dad's face wasn't what either one of them wanted to see, or what he said next. "Actually, it's in the storm cellar." The looks on his son and daughter's faces had fallen completely after his correction as to where the spaceship was stored. Jonathan got up off the couch and looked down at the two of them. "Come on." Was all said to them before heading down the stairs of the loft to the barn floor.

For a moment both Clark and Lara sat on the couch as sudden stupor had come over them at that moment as they stared after their dad as he disappeared down the steps of the lost. Both brother and sister looked at each other in an exchanged of looks before scrambling to their feet and running down the stairs after their dad to see if this was all really true or not. Jonathan led his children towards the storm cellar around the side of the house and then stopped a moment to unlock the large padlock keeping the chains wrapped around two metal handles bound there. Pulling the left door open, Jonathan descended down the steps of the cellar with Clark and Lara following after him. At the bottom of the cellar Jonathan brought towards a large object with a huge tarp covering it completely. Looking over his shoulder at the two behind him, Jonathan gave them a reassuring smile before looking back around and grabbed the tarp. Yanking the tarp off the large object, Jonathan revealed to them a large metal object that was shaped like an egg and then elongated with two fins sticking out at the main part of the body that was larger and rounder like a bubble.

Jonathan stepped towards the spaceship and placed a hand on it gently. "This is how the two of you came into our lives." He stated while looking at the spaceship and remembering that fateful day when the pickup he and Martha had been driving flipped after hitting a newly carved ditch in the middle of the road. "It was the day of the meteor shower."

Lara stared at the spaceship with a confused look on her face and a wrinkled brow as tried to understand that this thing before them was the real deal. Clark on the other hand looked over at their dad with a disturbed look on his face. "This is a joke, right?" he asked while stepping backwards and turning away from the spaceship. A hundred different types of emotions were running through both him and Lara, but Clark was expressing his more openly. Turning about, Clark came to his dad's side and held a somewhat angry look on his face. "Why didn't you tell us?" he demanded while pointing at the spaceship.

Jumping a bit at Clark's sudden outburst, Lara looked over at him and their father. A panic was starting to set in on her as she stared down at the spaceship that she had just learned brought her and her brother to her parents. Jonathan looked at Clark with a look of concern and want for his son to understand why they had kept the truth from him and his sister for so long. "Clark, we were only trying to protect you and Lara." He explained while also looking over at his daughter and saw the confused look on her face as she continued to stare at the spaceship.

"Protect us from what!" Clark asked angrily. "You should have told us!" he stated before taking off suddenly using his incredible speed to leave the storm cellar to wherever it was he wanted to run away to and from all of this.

Lara turned away from the spaceship and watched her brother take off. "Clark!" she called after him and made to follow, only her arm was quickly grabbed by her father to stop her own departure. Looking over at him, Lara had a look of pleading on her face for him to let her go and follow Clark.

"Lara, I know you want to go after Clark, but you can't." Jonathan stated. "Let him have some time alone to think about this." He gave her a small smile. "Ever since you two were little, you followed after him wherever he went and he did the same after you, but this time you just can't follow him sweetie." Jonathan gently explained while releasing his hold on her arm.

For a moment Lara stared at her father with look on her face that was mixed with emotion before she stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug as she sought comfort against all the confusion coursing through her. Jonathan wrapped his arms about his daughter's frame and kissed the crown of her head. "Dad, I'm scared." She whispered almost too quiet for him to hear as her eyes started to glass over.

Jonathan tightened the hold he had on his daughter after hearing her statement. "It's okay Lara. We'll figure this all out together."


	4. Scarecrow

**Chapter Three**

**_Scarecrow _**

By the time Clark had stopped running out frustration to what had been explained and shown to him and his sister, he found that he had run all the way out to the cemetery and stopped. The sun was starting to set as Clark stood at the center of the many gravestones and markers just staring off into the distance as he tried to understand what was going on now in his life. _Lara and I are aliens from another planet? Why didn't they tell us sooner rather than wait until we had an event like what happened at the bridge to tell us why we're different? _His hands, which had been hanging at his sides, balled tightly into fists at that moment as he stared at the ground with a scowl on his face. Speaking of Lara, Clark looked up and back over his shoulder expecting to see his sister come running up right behind him at any second. However, Clark found himself alone in that graveyard, as his sister was absent from the scene. For once she had not followed after him like his shadow. Looking back around to his forward attention Clark couldn't help but feel a bit alone without her there. When was the last time there had been a problem and Lara wasn't there to help him figure it out? Frustration and confusion was starting to get the better of him now, and Clark sought out a place to sit down to try and sort things out.

Sitting down off to the side and almost at the far back of the cemetery, Clark hid behind a large gravestone and just sat there thinking. The sun had gone down a few hours later and still Clark had yet to move from his spot any more than he had when tears stung his eyes and he wiped them away with the back of his hand. Other than that, he had remained motionless the whole time. He didn't know when it was exactly that the sounds of hooves beating into the ground at a walking pace reached him, but when it did he suddenly realized just how late it was at this point. The sun had long since gone down and night had fallen. The horse that entered the graveyard belonged to one Lana Lang, and she was upon his back at that very moment riding into visit with her mom and dad while also bringing fresh flowers for their grave. Bringing her horse to halt about halfway in, Lana dismounted and brought the reigns around so she could tie the horse up at the front gate. A sudden snap of a branch or twig nearby caused Lana to jump and hesitate before moving onward.

"Who's there?" she called out trying to keep her voice from shaking with the growing fear that was appearing at that moment. Lana was a small petite thing, and she was in no way capable of really defending herself if attacked by an assailant any size bigger than she was.

After hearing Lana's voice call out, Clark got up off his seat behind the gravestone and stepped out into the open. "Just me." He answered while coming into Lana's line of sight. "Clark."

The moon was out along with a million or so stars, so there was an ethereal light shinning down and chasing away most of the darkness while a slight mist dampened the air and gave the cemetery that all too familiar creep factor. Seeing Clark step somewhat into the light, Lana raised a curious brow while walking towards him. "Clark Kent?" she asked just too make sure she was right, and as she got closer she realized that she was. "What are you doing creeping around a cemetery this late at night?" Lana asked while coming to stop about a few feet from where he was standing.

"I'm not really sure." Clark answered while looking away from her, as there were still some remnants to the fact that he may have lost a few battles with his own tears before she showed up. "But I could ask you the same thing." He stated while glancing over at her momentarily.

Lana grinned at this, as it did seem kind of odd for someone like her to be out in a graveyard as well at this hour of the night. "I came to talk with my parents." She simply replied while coming around to try and look Clark in the face. "Do you think I'm weird?" she asked while raising a slight brow in question.

Clark glanced over at her again. "No, I don't think you're weird." He replied.

A smile graced Lana's face at that moment after hearing his reply. "Good." She stated and then paused a moment to look around. Someone seemed to be missing even though she really couldn't put her finger on it. Then it struck her. Clark Kent was without his twin sister. "So, going solo tonight Clark?" she asked only to gain a look of slight confusion from him in response. "I don't see your sister around." Lana explained while gesturing with her hand in a wave about the graveyard. "Your twin sister, right?"

"Yeah, Lara's my twin sister." Clark confirmed but then added in another quick piece of information to clear up any thing else that Lana might be thinking at that moment. "But we're not identical twins." He pointed out while shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. It was often mistaken that Clark and Lara were possibly identical twins, but the two had come to the conclusion that they were just twins since they weren't at all that identical to each other in looks rather than just looking to be brother and sister.

Lana nodded in understanding to this and then smiled. "I've talked to her a few times since the first day of school, she's really sweet." She commented on the absent girl in all truth. The two girls did have a few classes together and had some conversations, where if in possible the two were on the verge to sparking a small friendship as they had found few things in common. "So, Clark what are you doing out here?" Lana asked, as she was genuinely curious as to why he was out in the cemetery in the first place.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Clark answered while quickly taking a hand up to his left eye and quickly wiped away what could have been a tear if he hadn't put a stop to it.

Seeing as how Clark wasn't going to willingly say why he was out at this time of the night, and Lana could see he was upset about something, she simply smiled and took a hold of his wrist. "Come on, I'll introduce you to my parents." She stated while then walking off and taking Clark with her. The walk to where the grave of Lewis and Laura Lang was located, took about several minutes and then Lana stopped just before marble headstone. "Mom, dad, this is Clark Kent." Lana introduced them to her companion and then looked over at Clark. "Say 'hi'."

Clark raised a hand timidly and waved. "Hi."

Lana grinned a bit as she crouched down in front of the gravestone and placed the bouquet of flowers down before the marker. "Yeah he is kind of shy." She spoke as if talking face to face to her parents. "Well how should I know?" she asked and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as Clark crouched down beside her as well. "Mom wants to know if you're upset about a girl." Lana stated while looking over at Clark, who only shook his head 'no' in response to this. Lana nodded and then there was a small pause before she continued. "Dad wants to know if you're upset about a guy."

Clark's head snapped up from looking down at the ground. "No, no." The first 'no' went to Lana and then the second was directed to the gravestone quickly. This caused Lana to laugh.

"Sorry, dad has a twisted sense of humor." She apologized while laughing a bit as she spoke.

The two teens looked at each other and smiled a bit as apparently the mood had been lightened quite a bit now. An hour was spent before the grave of the Langs, Lana mostly conversing with them whiel asking Clark a few questions on part of her parents. Before long Clark and Lana had said good-bye to the Langs and started back towards the front entrance of the cemetery to grab Lana's horse and then headed for home. Clark walked Lana home, the two managing to carry out a conversation the whole way. By the time Clark had returned home it was well passed ten and the three members of his family were still up and waiting for his return.

Lara had eaten dinner with her parents in a total silence, as she really didn't want to talk too much about what had been revealed to her and Clark down in the storm cellar. After dinner, Lara helped clean the kitchen and then retreated to her 'Fortress of Solitude' for the remainder of the night just sitting on the sill of the hay door and stared out at the countryside. Her parents decided it was best to give her the space she needed to think things over, and left her to the solitude of the barn loft. For the past four hours Lara hadn't moved from her spot on the sill, but when she spotted Clark coming up the driveway finally at around ten o'clock, she perked up a bit but remained inside the loft as she watched him grow closer and closer to the barn.

Clark had been rather preoccupied as he walked up the driveway, mainly beaming a bit to himself over the fact that Lana had promised to save him a dance if he showed up at the dance tomorrow, but as he grew closer to the barn a feeling came over him as he felt like someone was watching him. Clark stopped and then looked up at the barn to see his sister staring down at him from the loft. He could tell just the look on her face that she was a bit relieved to see him, but at the same time she did seem still a bit upset. Clark raised a hand and waved at her only to receive a small smirk from her along with a wave of her own in return to his. He only blinked once and then furrowed his brow as Lara was now missing from the hay door, only suddenly be pitched forward a bit as something hit him from behind on the back.

Catching himself after a few forward stumbled steps, Clark looked over his shoulder to stare at the grinning face of his sister as she had jumped on to his back. "Sorry." Was all he said in apology to her for having taken off like he had.

Lara shook her head to this as she didn't think it was necessary for him to apologize. They were both upset over the whole thing, and it was just a normal reaction, as far as normal went for them anyways. "It's okay Clark." She stated while patting his shoulder with her hand that at the same time was helping keep her up on his back along with the other arm wrapped around his neck from behind. "Just carry me to the house and I'll forgive you." Lara laughed while waving towards the house with her hand. "Now move 'em out."

Clark laughed a bit while shrugging his shoulders before walking towards the house with his sister hanging off his back. "You okay Lara?" he asked as they reached the middle of the yard.

"Well I have my personal escort service taking me where ever I want, so yeah, I'm good." Lara replied while jumping down off her brother's shoulders and coming around to walk up the steps towards the door.

Not exactly the answer he wanted, Clark took a few steps to catch up and grabbed Lara by the arm to stop her. When Lara looked back over her shoulder at him with a somewhat questioning look on her face, Clark let go of her arm. "Stop doing that." He simply stated and the received a confused look from his sister in return. "Knock it off Lara, you know what I'm talking about. Now tell me the truth."

Lara stared at Clark with a somewhat blank look for a moment and then sighed while turning around to face him completely. "I don't know." She replied. "How am I supposed to feel? I mean, we find out at least for the most part where are parents and us are from, but to learn that we fell out the sky during the meteor shower, it's not going to be that easy in accepting." Lara explained while sitting down on the steps of the porch, Clark following right after her. "But something tells me that it won't be as hard as I'm thinking it would be if you weren't here." She stated while looking over at Clark with a faint smile on her face.

Clark returned her smile and placed an arm about her shoulders in a sideways hug. "Same here."

* * *

The following day, things weren't entirely settled since Clark and Lara learned that their parents weren't from around Kansas and neither were they. In fact, the two twins were from an entirely different planet all together from god only knows where in the universe. The thought that had been a subject of theirs even before all this was what had caused their parents to give them up like they had. And for a while, Lara had even wondered if their biological parents even loved them at all. However, the two siblings were up at their normal time and were downstairs for breakfast at seven. Martha was just taking out a tray of muffins from the oven when her son and daughter came down the stairs, jabbing each other like they always did to get there first before the other. A smile appeared on her face as it was good to see that the discovery of where they were from hadn't changed their daily morning routine. Setting the tray down on the butcher block cutting board that was laid out across the top of the kitchen island, Martha looked over at them as they entered. "Good morning." She greeted while pulling the oven mitt off her hand and then tossed it aside. "You two better get the lead out or you'll never make the bus." Martha stated while pointing at them and then to the tray she had set down in indication for them to grab something to eat.

"Yeah Clark, get the lead out." Lara teased while going around to the ridge and opening the door to grab the orange juice bottle for herself.

Clark mouthed her words back at her in a mocking while she ducked into the fridge and then grabbed a muffin off the tray without even thinking about the fact that they had just come out of the oven. It didn't really dawn on him even when his hands started to grow a little warm while holding the blueberry-sweetened pastry. As Lara was coming out of the fridge with the orange juice bottle in hand, Jonathan walked in through the kitchen door and grinned at his family, and maybe a little more so at his daughter after she popped back up with the rim of the glass bottle containing orange juice at her mouth. "Morning." He greeted to them and received back the same from all three, a kiss coming his wife in accompaniment to her verbal greeting. "Clark, Lara, when you two get home from school today I want you to return the truck to Lex Luthor." He stated while taking a seat at the island with a cup of coffee in his hands.

Both the faces of the two teens fell at the mention of this. They had hoped with everything that had happened yesterday, their dad would have forgotten about the whole gift from Lex thing. But their dad wasn't going to forget something like that with the brand new pickup still sitting in the driveway. Lara looked over at her dad with a furrowed brow. "Why do I have to go? I think Clark is old enough to handle something like that on his own." She pointed out while getting ready to take another drink of orange juice only to have immediately taken away from her by the hands of her own brother.

Martha had been ready to say something to Lara about using a glass, but when Clark took the bottle from her she gave a small smile thinking that he was going to intervene but found that he had only taken it from her to take a drink for himself. "Honestly, I don't know how the concept of using a glass has somehow managed to slip passed the two of you." Martha stated while coming over to Clark and taking the orange juice away from him now.

Jonathan only laughed lightly but then received an accusing look from both Clark and Lara deeming him just as guilty as they were. "Lara, you're going to go with Clark to return the truck and, don't you two have a school bus to catch?" he stated while hooking a thumb over his shoulder to change the subject.

Clark looked out the window of the kitchen that stared out towards the road. The yellow school bus was already pulling away to once again leave behind the two Kent siblings with their own mean of transportation to be taken now. Looking over at his sister with a somewhat panicked look, both siblings grabbed their backpacks off the coat rack and then were out the door and gone from sight within the blink of an eye. Martha looked over at her husband after their children disappeared in two separate blurs of blue, and gave him a tired smile to which he returned with his own. Both were still greatly concerned over how Clark and Lara were taking everything dumped on them yesterday. They were hoping later that evening after dinner the four of them could sit down and talk.

Somehow Clark and Lara had managed to make it to school with only a minute to spare before the bell rang. The two had homeroom together, but after that the two separated to head off towards their next classes. As Lara headed off towards Home Economics a sudden pressure started to build up again on both temples that caused her to slow her walking pace down greatly for a moment while placing a hand up to one temple since her other hand was full with several school books. Rubbing her temple, Lara tried to shake the feeling off, but as she did a flash came across her mind again like it had back in the barn. A red 'S', cornstalks, the Luthor Corp Fertilizer Plant sign, and then it was gone just as quickly as it had flashed by. The images caused Lara to grimace a bit while stopping completely in the hall, her eyes shutting for a moment before opening again to see the high school mascot of a black crow monogrammed on the back of a red and yellow letterman jacket come right up in her face before slamming into her completely and knocking Lara off her feet. Normally something like that wouldn't have fazed her, but a rather sick feeling came over her just as the crow came into her line of vision. Landing on her backside, Lara winced slightly while trying to steady herself through the rather uneasy sick feeling coming over her.

"Whoa, jeez Kent, sorry about that." A male voice stated that Lara recognized. When she looked up, Lara found herself staring at the apologetic smile of Whitney Foreman as he had crouched down in front of her and had her schoolbooks she had spilled in his hand. He had accidentally walked backwards into her while talking with a few other football players that were friends of his. When he hit Lara, he turned about to see who it was while the other guys hid on coming laughs behind a hand each. "You okay?" he asked as she only tried to smile back in response. "You look kind of sick." He stated while standing up and then offered down a hand to her.

"I'm fine." Lara replied while taking Whitney's offered hand and found herself then pulled up to her feet. The sick feeling was starting grow stronger for some reason and Lara nearly yanked her hand out of Whitney's, while leaning against the wall at her side. Whitney gave her a rather confused look before handing over her books. "Thanks." She breathed out while taking them back and holding them under her arm, that feeling was just so sickening to her for unknown reasons that it was confusing. Even Clark got the same feeling every once in a while, and it usually happened around Lana Lang, and often Lara felt herself feeling that way too, which caused her to wonder and then panic.

Whitney raised a brow slightly with a small smile on his face. "Okay then." He stated while making to leave with his friends, but then stopped and looked at Lara. "Hey, Lara, I think I asked you this already but, are you going to try out for the girls soccer team this year?" he asked.

Another type of sick feeling came over her now to add in with the other one. Soccer, the one thing she knew she would be good at and, it was one thing her dad restricted her from participating in. Lara shook her head a bit before answering verbally. "Not sure." She replied while trying to push aside that sick feeling to pass herself off as fine.

"Why not?" Whitney's brow furrowed slightly as he couldn't understand why she wouldn't try out. "If you tried out, I don't see why you wouldn't make it. You have some of the best skills with a soccer ball, and I can personally vouch for that if you want." Whitney offered in hopes of getting the female Kent to reconsider her choice. When Lara shook her head in response to this, his brow only furrowed further. "Okay." He stated while raising and dropping his hands in sign of defeat. Before he turned away, Whitney paused a moment and then decided to ask Lara a different question while taking note of the fact that she still looked rather sick. "Lara, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on between your brother and my girlfriend, would you?"

The question nearly raised the hairs on the back of Lara's neck in response. It wasn't like it freaked her out to hear something like that, but instead it made her a tad angry. Lara waited a moment to compose herself before answering, if she said anything now it would come out wrong. "No, Whitney I don't. Why don't you go ask Clark yourself since apparently it concerns him." She replied while giving the jock a rather stern look that showed just how unamused she was by his question.

Whitney only gave her a weak smile before walking passed her with the other guys following after him. As soon as Whitney got about five-feet from her, Lara suddenly felt a lot better in the fact that the feeling of an uneasy sickness faded almost instantly with the star quarter back of the football team walking away from her. Shaking her head to clear the 'cobwebs', Lara headed off towards her next class before the bell could ring her in as late.

The periods following after the first weren't anything that eventful and most of the day remained that way until after school let out. Clark and Lara met up outside the _Torch _office and then after saying good-bye to Chloe and Pete, they headed for home to get the pickup that Lex had given them as a gift to return back to him as said by their father…well stated. After tossing their backpacks on to the bench sitting up on the porch deck, Clark went inside for a moment to let their mom know they were home and that they were now leaving for the Luthor Mansion. Lara waited out by the new truck, staring at for a moment with a lost look. It would be nice to have a second truck around, and it was a rather nice to know how appreciative Lex was, but then again their dad had explained why they needed to return it. Sighing, Lara placed her hands atop the truck hood as the back screen door opened and closed. Clark came up beside her and set a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I know." He stated, only to fight back a laugh as Lara only groaned while dropping her forehead down on the hood with a bang. "I really hope you didn't dent the truck Lara." Clark said while sliding his hand under her downed forehead and then lifted it up enough to make sure for real she hadn't. Seeing nothing on the hood of the truck, Clark only nodded his approval and then let her forehead set back down. "Come on, let's get this over with."

The pickup pulled up in front of the black rod iron gates of the Luthor Mansion after a near thirty-minute drive from the Kent Farm. With the gates locked and closed, Clark got out of the pickup and went over to the panel embedded within the left stone pillar that seemed to be their only way in. Clark pressed the call button and then waited for a reply from anyone inside the mansion, only to get nothing over a period of near five minutes. Looking over at the truck, Clark found that Lara had scooted over into the driver's seat and was now hanging out the window with a somewhat confused look on her face before shrugging her shoulders and then got out.

"After you." Lara gestured towards the gates with a wave of her hand while grinning at her brother.

Clark rolled his eyes and then stepped over to the gates. Both brother and sister looked around to make sure the coast was clear, before Clark turned back to the gates and then grabbed one bar in either hand. With ease, Clark bent the two bars away from each other creating a space between them large enough for both him and Lara to get through. After they stepped through the space in the gate, Lara turned back around and re-bent the bars back into place so that way no one would stumble upon something that strange, and then the two took off across the large expansive piece of property and arrived just on the edge of the entry courtyard a second later. Looking around just to make sure no one had seen them arrive almost out of nowhere, the brother and sister duo started across the courtyard towards the front door of the mansion and found that it was unlocked.

Lara stepped forward and knocked only once before turning around and facing Clark. "Well, looks like nobody's home, let's go." She stated while starting to walk back towards the front gate, only to be stopped as Clark reached back and grabbed a hold of the collar on the back of her denim jacket. "Oh come on Clark." Lara moaned as she looked back over her shoulder at him with a pleading look on her face. "Seriously, do I really need to be here?"

"Yes, you really need to be here." Clark returned and then yanked her backwards towards the door while also turning his sister about to face the door. "Because dad said so." He added in before Lara could say anything in protest again. Reaching out passed his sister; Clark grabbed the door handle and then opened the door. "After you." He grinned while somewhat mocking her earlier comment at the gates.

Growling quietly in her throat in disproval to this whole thing Lara walked into the mansion and then waited in the entryway for Clark, who closed the door after them. The two started down a long hallway leading towards various parts of huge castle-like estate. Lara looked about herself while following Clark down the hall in a sort of awe to how big and grand this place seemed, though bare it was for the moment. "Wow, I could never imagine living in a place like this knowing that I would have to clean it everyday."

Clark looked over at his sister and smiled. "Well if you lived in a place like this, then that would mean you would be able to afford the help to clean it for you." He retorted while turning his attention forward again as they were coming up on a staircase off to the left.

"Good to know that your responsibility as a big brother hasn't fazed your sense of humor with any type of cruel sarcasm." Lara gave him a small glare out of the corner of her eye.

He had to force himself not to laugh at this comment, but instead just grinned broadly. Stopping just at the base of the stairs, Clark looked up towards the landing. "Hello?" when no answer came, Clark glanced over at Lara.

"Hey, I'm not going to search this entire place. God only knows I would get lost in here." Lara stated while putting her hands up in protest to whatever he might think at that moment.

With an unamused look on his face, Clark just shook off his sister's comment and started walking the hall again. As they ventured further down, Clark happened to look up at the ceiling high above them and was momentarily struck with the same sort of awe like his sister. "Hello?" he uttered the question more or less under his breath than anything else.

There was an open doorway off to the right now that they were coming up on, and Clark stopped here as the sounds of clashing metal caught his attention along with Lara's. The two siblings stopped within the doorway and watched as a pair dressed in all white dawning full faced masks with face netting come near dancing across the wood floor in a fencing match. Lara came in around Clark to watch as the match continued further down the room, but stuck close to his side just to be on the safe side. The two sparing partners clashed a moment longer until the smaller of the two backed the other up against a wall and then stuck the point of the fencing foil right at the center of the other's chest declaring the end of the match. As the winner backed off, the looser seemed to become frustrated and took the fencing foil in hand and speared it towards the wall that Clark stood right beside. Sticking out of the wall like a pin, the foil wobbled a bit while being stared at by two pairs of rather wide blue eyes. The looser of the fencing match suddenly removed the full-faced mask to reveal that it was in fact Lex Luthor underneath, and he seemed rather surprised to see the two Kents standing in the doorway.

"Clark? Lara?" He asked while walking towards them, taking note of the rather surprised looks that remained on their faces even after the whole foil into the wall thing. "I didn't even see you there." Lex stated while giving both a grin as he stopped just short of them.

Clark looked from the foil to Lex. "I buzzed but nobody answered." Clark explained while glancing over at his sister who seemed to have taken a rather death-like grip on his shirtsleeve from behind his arm whiel her eyes remained on the foil.

Lex raised a brow to this while yanking the foil free from the wall. "Then how did you get through the gate?" he asked, a bit confused to this bit in how they had gotten into the house in the first place.

"We kind of squeezed through the bars." Lara answered while finally releasing Clark's sleeve as he secretly shrugged for her to let go. "If this is a bad time…" she started while looking over at the woman who had been sparing with Lex. In a way, Lara was also looking for the possibility to not be there any longer than she needed to be.

"Oh no, no, I think Hikya has sufficiently kicked my ass for one day." Lex assured her while walking back over to where the woman was setting aside all of her fencing equipment. Handing her his mask and foil to her, Lex said something to her that went unheard by the two Kents and then returned to where they were at a brisk walk.

Clark watched Lex and then became a bit uncomfortable, as he wasn't sure on how he was going to explain to him why he and Lara had to return the truck. "Uh, this is a great place." He commented while stalling for more time to think or at least for Lara to come up with something to break the whole thing to Lex. But he was being genuine in the fact that he was rather impressed with the whole place.

"Oh yeah? If your dead and in the market for something to haunt." Lex joked while leading the way out the room that Clark and Lara had found him in. A smile was on his face.

"Well what I meant was that it's roomy." Clark turned to follow after Lex and found that Lara was just standing there near stalk still. Raising his brows and gesturing with his hands for her to get moving, Clark nearly had to force her to move as Lara was acting slower than he wanted her to be doing and managed to get both their selves out into the hall following Lex.

Lex continued to walk down the hall towards the staircase that led up to the second story of the mansion. Stopping a moment he turned about to look at the Kent twins. "It's the Luthor ancestral home." He stated while then turning to resume his walk towards the staircase. "My father had it shipped over from Scotland, stone by stone." Lex explained.

"Oh yeah. I remember the trucks rolled in for weeks. But no one ever moved in," Lara mused, mostly to herself while glancing over at her brother as he had grabbed her by the wrist to stop her a moment as Lex had gone up the stairs and stopped about several steps up.

"My father had no intention of living here." Lex stated while pulling the gloves off his hands while giving Clark and Lara a smirk. "He hasn't even stepped through the front door."

Lara's nose wrinkled a bit while one of those somewhat puzzled smiles came across her face. "Then why'd he move it here?" she asked while receiving a rather odd look from Lex that appeared as though he were almost admiring the look on her face. This in turn had Lara raising a brow, while Clark only looked between his sister and a guy they had only known round about a few days now. Something about the way they were looking at each other, primarily the way Lex was looking at his sister was stirring up a rather odd over protective flare in him. Then again, that was just something all guys with sisters felt when another guy looked at her.

Lex held a somewhat amused smirk to what Lara had asked. "Because he could." He simply replied while taking notice of the somewhat disturbed look on Clark's face. Giving both another smile, Lex continued up the stairs to the second level with Clark and Lara following. As he led them upstairs, a question came to mind. "So, how's the new ride?" he asked while entering into an office like space, the doors already standing wide open, and headed straight for a table where there was an ice bucket holding chilled bottles of water while removing the padded jacket he had been wearing.

"Actually, that's why I'm, I mean we're, here." Clark corrected himself while pulling the keys out of his jeans pocket. Glancing over at his sister, Clark noticed she was stuck in the doorway looking at the stained glass piece decorating the double doors to the office. Rolling his eyes slightly, Clark looked back over at Lex who had by noticed that Clark had the keys in his hand.

A bit of curious look crossed Lex's face as he headed over to another table in the office after grabbing a bottle of water and dumping off his padded jacket. "What's the matter? Don't like it?" he asked while crossing the room and grabbed a towel to wrap around his neck.

"No it's not that." Lara answered while finally entering the room and came to stand by her brother who had moved across the room after Lex. "It's just that, we can't keep it." She explained while both her and Clark tried to hide their disappointment in the whole thing.

Lex turned about to face the two. "The both of you saved my life, it's the least I can do." He stated while stepping towards them a bit and then stood before them a small smile as he was starting to understand why they were bringing back the truck. "Your father doesn't like me does he?" he asked. Both Clark and Lara looked ready to say something in response to this, but he cut them off by turning away and running a hand across his baldhead. "It's okay, I've been bald since I was nine. So I'm used to people judging me before they get to know me." He stated while looking at the full-length mirror that was set beside the table.

"It's nothing personal, our dad's just not that crazy about your father." Clark explained, hoping that Lex would understand.

Lex gave a small laugh to this while still staring into the mirror. "He just figures that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Lex stated while nodding to himself. "Understandable." He again nodded and then looked over his shoulder at the twins behind him. "How about you two? Did you fall far from the tree?" he asked with a somewhat amused look on his face.

"About a billion light years far possibly." Lara muttered quietly under her breath to where Clark barely even caught it, but she received a quick jab to her side from him in response. Wincing a bit she then gave him a quick glare while crossing her arms over her chest and then rolling her eyes slightly as she looked off to the side.

Clark stepped forward towards Lex while fiddling a bit with the keys in his hands. "We better go." He stated while handing the keys out to Lex, who held a hand out to take them. "Thanks for the truck." Clark placed the keys into Lex's hand and then turned around and grabbed Lara by the arm in gesture for her to start moving.

Lara gave Lex a quick wave before turning about as well to take the lead out the door. As Clark guided his sister out, Lex turned around further to watch them pass out the door, a bit of a genuine smile passing over his face to the simple friendly gesture the female part of the duo had given before leaving. Something about the Kent twins intrigued him, and on different fields respectively.

Almost as soon as they were down the stairs of the mansion, Clark caught his sister by the shoulder to slow her down. "What was that?" he asked in a near hiss to keep their conversation from falling upon the wrong ears.

"What was what?" Lara asked while stepping off the last step and then gave Clark a confused look. "Cause I'm pretty sure I waved good-bye." She stated while continuing down the hall back towards the front door.

"Lara, knock it off." Clark warned as he stuck to her side. "What was that comment about the whole apple from the tree thing?" he asked as they were coming up on the front door.

Lara shrugged her shoulders in response. "I'm not sure why I said it." She replied and then stopped a moment to look at her brother. "Clark, I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

"Its fine." Clark assured her as he just about nearly lost the whole sudden irritation towards what had happened in the office upstairs. Clapping his sister on the shoulder as they walked out of the mansion, he then shoved her from behind in a short playful manner as he was turning the tables on her. "Come on Lara, get the lead out. I need to meet up with Chloe and Pete at the _Torch_." He stated with a laughing tone of voice as he watched her near stumble out the door and then whipped about to give Clark a rather evil glare, which only caused him to laugh in response.

* * *

A rather odd scene was playing out in front of a store on the downtown streets of Smallville which had a rather large crowd gathered about the area watching as medics wheeled a man out on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on his face. Both Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross were present watching the whole thing as people murmured amongst themselves on what could have happened. "That's the third guy this week." Pete pointed out, as the guy was loaded into the back of the stretcher.

"Yeah, and they're all former jocks." Chloe added in while shaking her head at the whole situation and then sighed.

As the doors to ambulance closed, Pete's gaze drifted away towards the faces in the now dispersing crowd. However, he caught a rather odd looking guy who was staring after the ambulance as it drove away with a rather unsettling smile on his face that had Pete growing suspicious. Tapping Chloe on the shoulder, Pete then pointed over at the guy he was staring at.

Chloe followed his gaze and shrugged. "Don't know." She stated while holding up her digital camera to aim its focus at the said guy. "But let's find out." Chloe snapped off a picture of the guy before he turned and walked away with the rest of the crowd. Feeling a bit satisfied, Chloe looked over at Pete and grinned. "Come on, we're supposed to meet up with Clark at the _Torch_." She stated while then turning about on her heel and taking the lead.

By the time Clark showed up at the _Torch_, Chloe had done a rather quick but extensive search on the guy she had taken a picture of about an hour and a half ago. And as luck would have it, something rather strange popped up during the search in which Chloe pulled out a yearbook for Smallville High dating back twelve years ago in 1989. "His name is Jeremy Creek." Chloe stated while pointing to the black and white picture. "This is a picture of him twelve years ago, and this is a picture I took two hours ago." Chloe stated while pointing to the said picture on the computer and then looked over at Clark.

"That's impossible, he'd be twenty-six today. It has to a be a kid who looks like him." Clark stated while looking at the computer screen as Chloe got up and went to go get something from another table.

Pete nodded to this in a agreement. "My money was on the evil twin theory, until we checked missing persons." He explained while looking over at Chloe as she was coming back with a piece of paper in her hand printed with a missing persons report upon its surface.

"Jeremy disappeared from the state infirmary just a few days ago where he had been in a coma for twelve years." Chloe stated as she came to sit down next to Clark atop the computer table while handing over the report for him to go over for himself. "They say he suffered from a massive electrolyte imbalance."

"That's why he hasn't aged a day." Pete added in while pointing at the paper in confirmation to this statement. "There was a lightning storm a few days ago, and the infirmary's generators went down. But when they came back on, Jeremy was gone. The storm must have charged him up like a Duracell." Pete explained as Chloe turned back around to the computer to search for a few more things.

Clark folded his arms across his chest and started to think about this. "So now he's back in Smallville putting former jocks into comas. Why?"

"Because twelve years ago today Jeremy had been chosen to be the 'Scarecrow' that year." Pete stated with a worried look on his face as he was realizing something in connection to it all after remembering an article he had read about previous years Scarecrows.

Shaking his head, Clark was about to say something to this when he noticed a newspaper article being wave in his face by Chloe's hand. Taking it from her, he quickly read it over. "Comatose boy found twenty yards from a meteor strike." He read aloud while then looking at it with a furrowed brow. "Wait this can't be right." Clark stated while looking between his two friends.

"I think you better show him." Pete stated towards Chloe. Which had Clark looking even more confused than before.

Before anything else could be said, Clark was ushered out of the _Torch _and down the hall a few doors and then waited as Chloe opened the door and flipped on the light. Stepping inside, Clark's attention was taken right to the wall off to his left which was covered completely in newspaper article clippings and headlines accompanied with pictures. "It started out as a scrapbook, but then it just kind of mutated." She explained while all three came to stand before the wall.

"What is it?" Clark asked as he scanned over various things that seemed rather outlandish for the most part.

Chloe stepped forward towards the wall and spread her arms out in a sort grand introduction. "I call it 'The Wall of Weird'." She announced while then turning about to face her friends. The look on Clark's face was sort of hard to read at the moment and this caused Chloe's brow to wrinkle a bit as she wasn't quite understanding what it was that caused him to take on such a look.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" he asked while wandering towards the wall as one particular picture caught his interest. It was the cover of a TIME magazine with a little girl dressed in a fairy costume, crying. "Does Lara know about this?" he asked without looking away from the title reading HEARTBREAK IN THE HEARTLAND. Chloe shook her head 'no' as she hadn't told the other Kent half about the wall yet. "It's all our fault." He whispered under his breath before taking off out of the small closet like space, leaving his friends to wonder what that was all about.

Four maybe five hours later, no one had heard from or seen Clark since he stopped off at the farm with his sister before heading off to the _Torch_ and then left there after seeing the 'Wall of Weird'. Night had fallen and Lara was out in the barn loft watching the road from her perch on the hay door to catch sight of her brother speeding over the flatland faster than any car could ever hope to travel. He hadn't been home for dinner, and Lara's worry for him was now on Defcon 5 as the near antique clock sitting on the desk hit ten o'clock. Giving the clock a quick scowl, Lara got up off the hay doorsill and headed down out of the loft to leave the barn and head inside. Martha and Jonathan were sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of after dinner coffee and talking about a few things when Lara walked in with the screen door slamming closed behind her. Looking over at their daughter, they held somewhat concerned looks for the rather odd way she was acting for the moment.

"Is everything okay Lara?" Martha asked while setting her mug down on the table before her.

"I'm not sure." Lara replied while shaking her dark head and looking over at them both. "It's already ten o'clock and Clark hasn't been home since he left to meet up with Chloe and Pete." She explained while glancing over at the stove clock that now read **10:02pm** and another scowl passed again over her face.

Jonathan exchanged looks with his wife and then got up from the kitchen table to come over and stand near his daughter. Placing a hand on her shoulder he gave it a squeeze while smiling a bit at her. "Lara I know you and Clark are going through a difficult time right now after learning about your birth parents and the spaceship in the storm cellar, but sweetheart, you have to realize that you and Clark can't always be attached at the hip." He explained gently as he could only figure that Lara was worried for reasons pertaining to the other day, and just wanted Clark around at that point in time. "Your mother and I are here for you Lara if you need to talk."

Lara gave her dad a half-hearted smile, as she understood what he was saying, but yet at the same time she knew he didn't understand the deeper reasons why she was worried. There was an unsettling feeling that had come over her ever since running into Whitney, literally, in the hall and the question he had asked aside from the whole soccer thing. "I know you guys are, but dad, I'm not worried about Clark because the whole family secret thing coming out. There's something else I can't put my finger on, but I have this feeling that Clark just isn't out with Chloe and Pete at the school dance tonight." She explained and then stopped short as she saw the look on her mother's face.

Standing up from the table now, Martha came across to her daughter with a rather shocked look on her face. "Honey, you never said anything about a dance at school."

"I know." Lara stated with a somewhat nervous look on her face. "I didn't want to go, that's why I didn't bring it up or let Clark say anything." She explained while trying to assure her mother that it wasn't a big deal to her. "But I know Clark's not there."

Jonathan looked over at his wife who seemed ready to say something to Lara, but he stopped her before she could with just the look on his face that silently asked for her not to press the issue. Giving a quiet sigh, Jonathan looked over at his daughter again and gave her a defeated smile. "Alright Lara." He stated as he finally agreed with her conclusion that something was up. "What do you think is going on?"

Lara gave her dad a big smile, as she was rather relieved to the fact that he trusted her on this. However, she lost the smile as soon as it came. Something was starting to click in her mind now as she thought about those rather weird flashing pictures that had crossed her mind earlier that day and the day before. Then it hit her. "Riley Field." It came out in a quiet murmur that was mainly said aloud to herself, but both her parents seemed to have caught the fact that she had said something. Lara looked up at them with a look on her face that stated she knew something.

Jonathan only nodded to her with a knowing look on his face and then clapped her shoulder. Without another word spoken to between any of them, Lara was out the kitchen door and speeding off across the farm headed towards Riley Field. She knew what the red 'S', cornstalks, and the fertilizer planet sign meant now as she crossed over other pieces of private property at a blinding speed. Clark wasn't home because he had been chosen as this year's Scarecrow, and was now strung up in Riley Field in his boxers with an 'S' painted upon his chest. In only a minute Lara was coming to a stop on the road that separated the fertilizer plant and the cornfield from each other. After stopping, Lara looked around as she crossed over to the soft shoulder that was sectioned off from Riley Field with a horse wire fence and noticed off to the left side of the road was parked a silver Porsche that seemed somewhat familiar to her which caused her to stop and stare. _Lex? _Before she could confirm the fact that the car was in fact his, Lara was nearly bowled over by her own brother as he came running out of the field through a break in the fence. Clark came to a near skidding halt so as not to smack right into Lara who had her attention elsewhere at the moment, but when he showed up her attention had snapped back over to the field and right to him.

"Clark!" Lara's face went from a look of quick momentary joy at the sight of her brother to a look of total shock to the fact that he was in his boxers and bearing a red 'S' painted on his chest. "Are you okay?" she asked looking him over quickly with her eyes.

"I'm fine." Clark replied while tossing most of his clothes at her but kept his pants to pull them on quickly. "We have to get to school." He stated while catching his shirt as Lara tossed it back at him. Once Clark pulled his shirt on over his head, he nodded to Lara and both were off and running towards Smallville High.

Arriving on the backside of the school building where the janitors and other maintenance workers used for storage and access purposes, Clark and Lara came to a running halt. Lara looked around the dark alley-like passage and really saw nothing that seemed to out of the ordinary. "I don't understand, why did we need to come to the school? All that's going on here is the dance." Lara's brow furrowed while looking over at Clark.

"You remember reading about those two guys who used to be jocks here at Smallville High?" he asked while walking off to take the lead further down the back alley with Lara following after him.

"Yeah, they both suffered something like a heart attack." She replied while matching each of Clark's strides with her own rather easily. "What about them?"

Clark glanced over at her and decided it was best just to give her the whole thing in a nutshell. "Twelve years ago when the meteor shower happened, the guy who had been chosen as that year's Scarecrow was strung in the field about twenty feet from a hit. His name was Jeremy Creek and he's been a coma since then until now, and he's back in Smallville taking out the people who put him there in the first place." He quickly explained and then stopped as he took notice of someone moving about what appeared to be the emergency sprinkler system. "Lara," Clark looked over at his sister while stopping their walk. "Go find –"

"Clark, no!" Lara protested while cutting him off quickly. "I am not going to go hide and let you handle this on your own." She stated while taking a rather stern look on her face. Lara wasn't exactly that thrilled about the fact that Clark was going all over protective brother on her at the moment.

"I wasn't going to say that." Clark returned in defense of himself and then gave her a grin. "I was only going to say, go find out if everyone is okay in the gym."

Lara's brows rose in surprise to this. "Oh, well, okay then. I'll be right back." She stated and then turned on her heel to go around the other side but stopped a moment to look back at Clark. "Clark, be careful." Clark only gave her a small smile in assurance that he would, and then Lara took off back down the alley to check out the dance going on inside the gym. Showing up at the back door within a few seconds the younger Kent arrived in time to watch the King and Queen of homecoming slow dance along with everyone else who was attending the dance. A small amount of guilt and want came over Lara as it looked like it would have been fun to be inside all dressed up with a date on your arm. Shaking her head, Lara reminded herself why she was there in the first place. Everyone was okay from what she could tell. Nodding to herself, Lara headed back to where she had left Clark to deal with Jeremy Creek. Arriving in time to see Jeremy holding Clark by the shoulders with an electric field coursing over his body. Lara was momentarily stock still watching this, but then a flash of anger came over her in response to her only brother in danger.

Jeremy had a bit of a smile on his face as he electrocuted Clark, but his smile soon vanished as his left shoulder was suddenly within a vice-like grip causing him to end his little light show for the moment and release Clark. Looking over his shoulder, Jeremy stared into the rather angry looking face of the dark haired and blue-eyed Lara Kent. "Who are you?" he asked while wincing under the rough hold on his shoulder.

"His sister." She answered simply and then with just a mere jerk of her hand into the motion of a throw, Lara sent Jeremy flying across the alley to hit the hood of a parked pickup truck belonging possibly to a maintenance worker who worked at the school. Jeremy's body hit the truck, denting the hood a bit and even cracking the glass of the window shield. Lara looked over at Clark with a small amount of concern on her face that was only answered with a shake of his head to let her know he was fine.

Both brother and sister looked over to where Jeremy had been relocated too, only to watch as he stood up on the other side of the truck and place a hand down on the hood. Clark stared at the guy who hadn't aged a day sense slipping into a coma twelve years ago. "Give it up Jeremy." He warned while taking a step forward.

Jeremy only smirked a bit while a pulse of electricity released from his hand and immediately started up the car engine. Getting into the truck, Jeremy put it into drive had went straight for the two who were keeping him from getting done his purpose in being there at the school in the first place. Clark glanced over at his sister quickly as the truck came their way. They had both been hit by a car before and survived, and this time hopefully wasn't going to be any different. However, he wasn't going to take a chance and just seconds before the car reached them; Clark shoved his sister out of the way. Lara hit the ground off to the side as Clark was hit head on with the truck and stared with a mixed look of both confusion and concern as she watched the truck push Clark right through a solid brick wall busting a water main on the way in. The truck came to a halt after hitting the wall, and Lara was back up on her feet and at the tailgate of the truck all in the same second.

"Clark!" she called out his name while trying see passed the truck itself. When Clark's head popped up from in front of the car she breathed a sigh of relief but then gave him a rather heated glare for the stunt he had pulled. Before a word could be said on her part or his, a surge of electricity crawled over the truck and zapped both Kents to shove them away in a slight explosion-like manner. Lara was the first to get back up and rubbed her head a bit as she was a bit confused as to what had just happened. Clark got back up at about the same time and looked through the busted window shield to see where his sister was. Lara looked around to assess the situation for a moment and then gestured with a nod of her head for Clark to step aside. When he moved to the side, Lara grabbed the lip of the tailgate and then propped her shoulder up against the truck, and gave a good push on it to shove the entire truck forward to unblock the driver side door.

Clark came to the door and pulled it off its hinges, a small wave flooding out as it had built up inside the cab. Jeremy was coming too as he had been knocked out after the crash and looked at Clark with a confused look on his face. "Where am I? And who are you?" he asked while then catching sight of a girl's face in the rearview mirror.

"I'm Clark Kent, that's my twin sister Lara, and you're in Smallville." He explained with a small smile on his face before looking over at his sister who was grinning a bit at him.


	5. Butterflied

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville and its characters. I do not own Superman either or any of its characters. The only character I take credit to is the fictional character of Lara Kent.**

((Thanks for the advice Suekosa, I appreciate it. And don't worry about me minding what one reviewer that had been mentioned in your review said, things like that don't bother me.))

* * *

**Chapter Four **

**_Butterflied_**

The evening of the Homecoming dance had ended without any one in the gym knowing what kind of serious hurt they had been spared of thanks to the actions of the Kent twins, Clark and Lara. Jeremy Creek had been spared any injury as well, aside from the fact that he was confused as to why he was back in Smallville and inside a pickup truck that had driven itself through a brick wall. After Clark explained a few things to Jeremy, both he and Lara took Jeremy to the Smallville Community Medical Center to be taken care of by the doctors there. Once they knew Jeremy was in good hands, Clark and his sister headed home where Lara went straight for bed and Clark headed out to the loft for a while.

At that same time about a mile up the road from the Kent Farm, Lana Lang was being dropped off by her friends a few hours after the dance was over. Standing on the steps leading up to the front porch, Lana waved as they drove off honking the horn and calling out good-byes to her as they went. Once they had passed out of the driveway, Lana headed up the steps and crossed the porch landing to grab the front screen door by the handle and passed through the open door to have shut behind her. Unbeknownst to the Homecoming Queen, she was being watched all the while by a pair of eyes peering through the leaves and branches of a tree. Lana headed upstairs and walked through the door of her bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind her. Sighing to herself in a somewhat content fashion, Lana crossed the floor to the side of her room where a large white dresser was set against the wall with the top covered in various things ranging from photographs of friends to various little trinkets.

Taking the crystal-like tiara that had been placed upon her brunette colored head, Lana bent down and pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser. The dresser drawer itself was filled with other various tiaras shaped in different designs with different patterns along side ribbons and trophies. Adding the silk flower corsage that Whitney had given her, Lana shut the drawer and then as she turned about, her eye caught something on the top of her bed. A gold cardboard box wrapped closed with shinny blue ribbon sat almost at the exact middle of Lana's bed. Raising a curious brow at this, Lana walked over to her bed and sat down before scooting further towards the middle where the box sat. Taking the small package up on her lap, Lana untied the ribbon and lifted off the lid only find that a numerous amount of both green and blue butterflies fluttered out. A rather shocking surprise, but rather pleasing to watch as the beautiful insects flew about her room and caused a smile to form on her lips as she watched them. Reaching a hand into the box, Lana allowed a lingering butterfly to climb upon the tip before pulling her hand out and then watched as it spread its wings and took off to join the others in their aerial dance.

The smile upon Lana's face was viewed through the LCD screen of a digital camera by the eyes sitting within the eaves of the tree they hid amongst. A smile was also spread across the face of the young man who held the camera and who had also been the one to leave the box of butterflies inside Lana's room for her to find upon her return. After viewing her a few more minutes and recording it all within the memory of the digital camera, the young man turned the camera off and then climbed down of the tree where at the base sat a backpack alongside a glass jar containing fireflies that were buzzing about with their tails alight. Shoving the camera within the main body of his backpack, the young man slung it upon his shoulder before grabbing his jar of fireflies and then walked off. Parked a bit a ways from the house Lana lived in, a green BW Bug was hidden upon a back lane running in between Hickory Lane and Avenue 8. The car belonged to the young man who was walking up to it and pulling out a set of keys to unlock the doors of his car. After tossing his backpack and jar into the backseat, the young man climbed in and started up the car to drive home.

* * *

The early morning hours of Smallville painted the farmlands and crop fields with pale fresh colors. Grand sweeping overhead views passed by until it all ended at one house, and in one bedroom. Clark Kent looked down upon the peaceful sleeping form of Lana Lang as he hovered over her by at least three feet, arms folded across his chest. A smile passed over his face as he stared at her. She was perfect in his eyes. Suddenly, Lana's eyes opened and looked up at Clark with an accusing look on her face and in her eyes. "It's all your fault Clark." She stated before her eyes closed and she returned to sleeping. Clark's brow furrowed for a moment.

"Clark!"

Clark awoke with a sudden start to find himself staring down at the pillows and bed coverings, his eyes becoming rather wide before found himself crashing down upon his bed face first. The end of his bed buckled under the sudden dropping of body weight and crashed to the ground, the head of the bed soon following right after causing Clark to hit the pillow face first again.

"Clark, we're leaving for the Farmer's Market in fifteen minutes and you haven't done your chores yet." Martha's voice called out from downstairs.

Groaning, Clark pulled his face up off his pillow and then rolled out of bed to get dressed. Yanking his shirt off and tossing it back over his shoulder to his now broken bed, Clark suddenly looked over at his bedroom door as it opened from the other side. Lara's head peeked in and her gaze first fell on the bed, a brow rising in confusion to its current state, but she shook it off and looked around since Clark wasn't in his bed. Locating her brother off to the side of the room near his dresser, she grinned at him. "What'd you do to your bed?" she asked, but only received a slightly annoyed look from Clark in return that was meant in gesture for her to get out so he could get dressed. "Anyways, mom says that we're leaving and that as soon as you get your chores done to head for the Market." Lara stated while then leaving the room and closing the door. Not even a second after that, the door opened again and Lara popped in. "Oh yeah." She stated while then stepping in all the way to then chucked a pillow at Clark's head. "That's for last night when you pushed me out of the way. Love you Clark." Lara grinned while escaping into the hall and down the stairs as Clark near gave chase with the pillow in hand.

Downstairs, Lara reappeared in the kitchen as her mom and dad were grabbing their coats off the hooks lined up on the wall by the door. Martha looked over at her daughter as she too came to grab her denim jacket and pull it on over the powder blue long sleeved shirt she was wearing already. "Did you tell your brother?" Martha asked while raising a brow. She had heard the sudden commotion upstairs and knew that the two of them had gotten into some sort of sibling thing before Lara showed up downstairs.

"Yep." Lara replied while running a hand through the back of her dark hair and grinning at her mother. The look on her mom's face had Lara take up a rather innocent look for the most part. "What? I only tossed a pillow at him." She admitted while heading out the door after her dad, who at the moment was laughing a bit while shaking his head to what he heard Lara confess.

"Lara Kent…" Martha began while following out as well while Lara came to a stop on the porch and waited for her to finish. Martha gave her a slightly stern look before laying a hand on her shoulder and then pointed the other away from her and Lara after Jonathan. "Go help your father finish loading up the truck." A faint smile was coming up on Martha's face. Lara gave her a half smile before jumping off the porch over the steps. "Lara really, use the steps that's why they're there." She called after her daughter as she hurried after Jonathan in a jog.

Lara turned her head over her shoulder and grinned. "But they just slow me down." She called back before turning her attention forward as she caught up to father's side as he was headed towards the barn.

The Farmer's Market was a buzz with all types of activity going on with various venders selling organics and other little trinkets off to the side. There was even a mini labyrinth maze carved out on the ground in the turf for people to walk from start to finish. At the booth the Kents had set up, Clark had arrived not but maybe a few minutes after the rest of his family had arrived and gotten most of the produce out of the truck while setting up the booth as well. Chloe and Pete had arrived as well to help out the Kents. While Chloe helped Martha arrange the crates of fruits and vegetables in a certain way that they looked the best, Clark set up the sign advertising **KENT ORGANIC PRODUCTS**. Pete helped Clark position the sign and then handed him the nail to be used in attaching the sign to the wooden pole. While Pete went to go find a hammer, Clark looked around a moment quickly and then positioned the nail where it needed to be placed before using his thumb to shove the nail through both layers of wood. Checking once more to make sure that no one had seen what he just did, Clark had to do a double take as he spotted his sister off to the side with a few kids kicking a soccer ball between them.

Clark grinned as he watched the kids try and get the ball away from his sister as she kept it close to her own feet while weaving in out of the kids that barely came up to her waist in height. As one of the boys that made up the group went to slide in and take the ball while also possibly tripping Lara up at the same time, but as he slid in to near catch her ankle Lara got her foot up under the ball to kick it up out of his reach. As the ball went up, Lara jumped at the same time to go over the boy as he slid under her. At the same time, both Lara and the ball came down on the ground, and Lara caught the ball under her control once more and then turned about after stopping the soccer ball under her foot. Those who had been watching the whole thing started clapping after Lara proved her talent. The boy who had tried to get the ball from her was already clambering up to his feet with a small grin on his face. Along with him, the other kids came to gather around Lara.

"You cheated." The boy stated while trying to hold back a smile or look of admiration for her.

Lara's face took a somewhat unamused look as she took her foot off the ball and kicked it upwards towards herself, catching the black and white patchwork sphere in her hands. "Now why would you say something like that?" she asked as the corner of her mouth twitched the slightest as a smile was being forced back to remain somewhat stern at the whole accusation.

The boy crossed his arms. "Because. You must be on the high school soccer team." He pointed out while the other kids seemed to be agreeing with this as they were nodding their heads while also verbally agreeing.

At the mention of the soccer team, Lara's face fell a bit but then she quickly recovered and gave the kids a small smile. "Well, I hate to disappoint you guys, but I'm not apart of the high school team." She replied while tossing the ball over to the boy who had tried to steal the ball earlier. "Have fun guys and don't kick the ball around the stands anymore." She warned while then reaching out a hand and ruffled the boy's hair before walking off back towards the stand her parents were selling from.

Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans, Lara walked at a normal pace that held a sense of dower air. Even little kids saw how great she would be at soccer and said she should be on the high school team. Sighing to herself, Lara continued on towards the booth, only to arrive when Lana was just about to leave and look at the other booths. As Lara approached the spot from behind, she was immediately spotted by Lana and waved over with a huge grin as a greeting. "Lara. I was wondering where Clark's other half had gone off to." Lana continued to grin at Lara as the tall dark haired teen came around to stand before her.

"Oh well, I was just off making sure some kids and a ball didn't cause any trouble for the venders." Lara explained while glancing over at her dad who was standing a few feet away talking with her mother, and no doubt half listening to the conversation between his daughter and Lana Lang.

Lana laughed a bit. "I see. Lara Kent off to save the Farmer's Market." She laughed lightly while speaking, which caused Lara to smile a bit. "So are you playing 'supergirl' for the day? Coming to the rescue of all the venders?" Lana asked only to have Lara give her a sheepish smile to this. "I didn't see you at the dance last night." She commented while rolling the peach in her hands that Mr. Kent had given her earlier while trying to find another piece of conversation to start up between her and Lara.

"Yeah well, I was just a bit preoccupied with a few personal things. I guess it must have just slipped my mind." Lara explained in half-truth. "I heard you were crowned Homecoming Queen though, congratulations." Lara stated while grinning at Lana.

Giving a small child-like curtsy, Lana kept back a laugh for the time being. "Why thank you Madame." Lana replied in good humor as she could tell Lara was trying to be friendly with her, and it only managed to have both girls burst into a fit of giggles. Recovering from their bought with laughter, Lana toyed with the piece of fruit in her hand still as an idea popped into her head at the moment as she caught sight of a vender's stand holding trinkets that weren't of the organic kind. "Hey Lara, do you think your parents would mind if I stole you for a moment?" Lana asked while glancing over at Mr. and Mrs. Kent who were busy tying up a bag of produce for a customer.

Lara followed her gaze, a smile still on her face as she looked back at the more petit girl. "I don't think they would, but let me check real quick before I do anything 'rash'." Lara replied before leaving Lana to see if her parents would in fact mind. Martha was the first one Lara approached since she was the nearest and wasn't involved with the conversation going on between Jonathan and the man they just sold some produce to. Lara placed a hand on her mother's arm to get her attention a moment, and as soon as Martha Kent looked over at her, Lara asked her question with a hopeful look on her face. "Hey mom, do you mind if I go hang out with Lana for a while?" she asked, and caught out of the corner of her eye a slightly annoyed Chloe Sullivan who had caught Lara's question while helping Pete sort a few boxes.

Martha looked over at Lana for a quick moment and then smiled as she returned her attention back to Lara. "I don't see why not. Just make sure that it's not an all day thing. We need both you and Clark helping here at the booth." She replied while running a hand over the top of Lara's head in a motherly affectionate manner before winking at her.

"Thanks mom." Lara grinned while giving her mother a quick hug and then headed back over to where Lana was. With only a big smile and a nod, Lara headed off with Lana towards the other booths where they were selling trinkets other various items.

Chloe watched her friend leave with the cheerleader and had a deep furrow growing on her brow that Pete took notice of and only smirked a bit while picking up a box of plums off the ground. "Don't worry Chloe, Lara isn't replacing you with Lana." Pete assured his friend before turning about to take the new box over to the table that had another box stacked upon it with spaces of missing baskets dotting it.

"That's easy for you to say Pete. You've known both Lara and Clark since the sandbox." Chloe pointed out while sighing mentally as she turned around to come stand next to Pete and help out with restocking the plum space.

Pete laughed a bit and then looked over at Chloe as she picked up a small green plastic basket out of the box. "And you've known her since what, the seventh grade?" Pete then pointed out for Chloe to realize she was just over reacting.

Again Chloe's brow furrowed a moment at what Pete had said. It wasn't that she was saying Lara Kent was the type of person to ditch one friend to make another who was a head cheerleader; in fact Lara was the total opposite of that. For Chloe it was just a little confusing as to why Lara would suddenly start hanging out with Lana or why Lana wanted to hang out with Lara. "Yeah, I know that Pete. It's just a little weird to see those two hanging out like that."

"Chloe, they only went like a few booths down to look at some garden art." Pete stated while looking back over his shoulder at the two brunettes who were just barely within the line of sight. "Besides," he looked over at Chloe and grinned. "If you're that concerned talk to Lara about it." In return to this, Chloe elbowed Pete in the ribs while giving him a playful glare.

Lara and Lana had in fact gone down several booths to look at some rather nice pieces of garden art, and were admiring the stained glass butterflies hanging off long pieces of wire so that they could twirl in the wind. Lana reached out a hand and twirled a butterfly on its wire gently and then watched as it spun about afterwards before glancing over at Lara with a somewhat guilty look on her face as she did have an ulterior motive for having asked her to come hang out a bit. It wasn't anything mean or of ill will, it was just that Lana knew she could get an honest and true answer to a few questions when speaking with Lara Kent. "Lara, I sort of had a reason to borrow you for a moment from your parents." She confessed while hoping Lara wouldn't be mad about this, and her worry showed as she played with the piece of fruit she was still holding in her hands.

Looking away from a stain glass dragonfly and over at Lana, Lara grinned a bit at her. "I kind of figured you did." She stated while looking towards the suspended bejeweled bugs hanging from the pole of the booth. "Is it safe to assume it might have something to do with two specific high school boys our own age?" Lara asked while raising a brow at the same time as she looked over at Lana out of the corner of her eye.

A small laugh of relief left Lana as she caught Lara's hidden grin. "Unfortunately, yes." She admitted while crossing her arms and turning to face Lara fully. A somewhat disappointed look was on her face for the moment, as she knew that something happened the other night and both Whitney and Clark had tried to avoid it. "Lara, did something happen last night? I mean with Clark and possibly Whitney?" she asked while stepping closer to Lara to keep their conversation private, a look of concern and deep worry was on her face.

Lara bit the inside of her bottom lip. She knew that Lana was possibly going to ask something along those lines but she didn't think she just come right down to the point and flat out ask. "Look Lana, even though Clark is my brother I don't think it's my place to get involved in something I wasn't apart of in the first place." Lara explained. In reality, Lara wasn't exactly sure in what had happened during the Homecoming dance but Clark had told her the whole story after they got home. So in fact Lara did know about what happened, how Whitney and some of the other members of the football team had ambushed Clark at school and then took him out to Riley Field.

Even though Lana hadn't received the answer she was hoping to find, she could understand why Lara wasn't telling her what she knew. Lana gave her a sympathetic smile. "It's okay Lara, I understand. I'll talk to Whitney later." She stated in assurance to the dark haired teen before her who out stood her by a good foot in height. After seeing that Lara had relaxed a bit when she assured her, Lana gave her a friendly smile. "So, aside from others, how come you weren't at the dance?" Lana asked while raising a brow and dropping her arms to her sides while looking over at the butterflies dangling before them.

"Uh, well, I…wasn't in much of a mood to attend a dance I guess." Lara stated while she started to grow a little nervous now when confronted with why she hadn't gone. The truth was, Lara didn't want to go to the dance for a couple of reasons; one being the most important fact that she hadn't been asked, and two being because something like a dance sort of scared Lara for some reason.

"Uh-hu." Lana mused while giving her an amused look out of the corner of her eye while grinning broadly as she reached out and spun a butterfly on its wire.

"Beautiful isn't it." A male voice asked, which caused both Lana and Lara to jump and then whip around to see who was talking to them. Greg 'the bug boy' Arkin, had been standing behind the two girls until they turned around and now he stood before them dressed a little differently than they were used to seeing him. He smiled a bit at them both; a brief nod was directed towards Lara. "Hey, Kent."

"Greg." Lana said in a near sigh, as she was a bit relieved to know whom it was that was taking to both her and Lara Kent. "I didn't recognize you without the glasses." She stated while gesturing to her own eyes in added statement with a wave of her hand.

Greg only gave her a brief smile before looking over at the butterflies that Lana and Lara had been looking at. "Did you know the average butterfly lives only eight hours?" he asked in a sort of trivia-like question while tapping a butterfly on its wing.

Lana ducked under the butterfly display to come up on the other side, pulling Lara with her. "Live fast, die young." Lana grinned while looking from Greg to the butterfly before her.

Lara gave the brunette beside her a somewhat curious half glance. "Yeah, they're the rock stars of the insect world." She commented while looking over at Greg with a quirky grin and held up her right hand in the rocker devil horns to emphasize on what she had said.

Greg couldn't help but give Lara a brief smile and laugh to what she said. "Between you and Clark, I'd say you were always the smart aleck." He stated while shoving his hands into the pockets of his black leather coat; a new kind of look crossed his face that seemed a bit hopeful as he looked to Lana now. "Hey, Lana, do you think you could help me out on my Lit paper?" he asked, referring to of course to an assignment that they had been assigned by their teacher at school.

"The Nathaniel West assignment giving you brain freeze?" Lana asked while grinning a bit, as she could understand just how rough the assignment might be.

"Yeah, it's kicking my ass." Greg replied while smiling a bit. As Lana nodded to the fact that she would help him out on his paper, his smile grew a bit more. "So how about my house after school?" he suggested.

"Actually I think the library would be easier." Lana stated while hoping this wouldn't upset Greg or cause him to pursue still the idea of going to his house. It wasn't as though Lana was afraid that something might end up happening, but she just wanted to be on the safer side of things when it came to helping out a fellow student of the opposite gender with something like a school assignment.

Greg seemed to be taking this into thought at the moment, and then he nodded. "It's a date." He stated, only then feel someone approach from behind while noticing the looks on both Lana and Lara's faces.

Whitney had seen his girlfriend walk off with Lara Kent, sister of course to the very same guy he and a few of his pals tied up in a cornfield as the year's Homecoming Scarecrow, and was a bit hesitant to follow after them at first. However, that changed when he saw 'the bug boy' walk up to his girlfriend and start talking with her, never mind the fact that he was also talking to Lara Kent as well. Seeing this, Whitney made a beeline towards Lana and that was when he came up beside Greg with a small smile directed at the two girls alone. "Hey Lana, your aunt is looking for you." He stated while then looking over at Lara. "And your mom is looking for you as well."

Lana's face twitched a bit with a smile before she ducked out from behind the butterflies and headed off to find her aunt with Lara following after her to head back towards the booth, but gave Greg a quick wave and short 'bye' as she left with Lana. As the two girls walked away to find their respective adults, Lara looked back over her shoulder to see that Whitney and Greg were having some sort of short conversation before Whitney left and turned to follow after the two girls. Shaking her head as she turned her head forward again, Lara could only imagine what was said between the two of them. About halfway back to the booth the Kents were selling from, Lana glanced over at Lara. "I'll see you later Lara." She said while grinning over at the darker haired girl. When Lara returned the grin, Lana laughed briefly. "Thanks for hanging out with me for a while."

"Not a problem. Anytime you want to talk again Lana, you know where I live." Lara stated and then waved to her as they parted ways and headed off to find their respective adults. As Lara headed for the booth her parents were selling out of, a slight pressure started to build up on either temple again which caused her slow her walk down a bit s she placed a hand on either side of her forehead to massage the spots with her fingertips. Images started to flash across her mind again as they before. Lara had hoped maybe it was just a coincidence and or that it was the first and last time it would happen, however, that theory changed as she now saw these new images come across as if she were recalling a memory of some kind. A truck runs off the road, butterflies and other bugs, an explosion at a farm silo. Lara's eyes had shut for a moment as they images played like an obscured movie clip, only to prove ill as she literally smacked into someone and found herself on the ground in a near sitting position. Shaking her head to clear the fog, Lara found her eyes opened and turned up to see who it was she had hit.

"I'm not sure whether it was you who walked into me or a brick wall." Lex stated while crouching down in front of Lara with a small smile on his face. "You okay?" he asked after seeing the somewhat disoriented look on Lara's face.

Lara forced out a smile and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine." She replied while moving to stand herself back up. Lex stood first and then offered a hand down to her, which Lara didn't really need but she took it anyways to be polite. "Thanks, and sorry about running into you like that Lex." Lara apologized while giving him a half-hearted smile as she brushed herself off.

"Don't be, I'm not." Lex stated with a bit of a smirk on his face. "I'm actually kind of glad you ran into me Lara." He said while placing his hands within the pockets of his coat and still held that small smirk on his face.

Her brow wrinkled a bit in a puzzled way to what Lex had said. "Why would you be glad that I ran into?" Lara asked while taking a glance over towards where her parents, brother, and friends were gathered. They seemed a bit busy with restocking some of the sold out parts of the produce as well as selling at the same time.

Lex shrugged his shoulders slightly to this. "Maybe because you and your brother are the only people I've been lucky enough to find some sort of friendship in since coming to Smallville." He suggested while turning sideways a bit to look over at the booth that Lara had glanced over at while talking with him. "Looks busy." He commented and then looked over at Lara again with another small smile. "Guess I better let you head over and help out." Lex winked at her before walking into the direction she had basically come from. As he came to pass her side, he paused a moment and looked over at her, which in turn had Lara looking at him. Lara topped Lex by an inch or so, but they were almost the same height as one another. "Tell Clark I'll catch him after the market is over." He said before giving Lara a final grin and then walked away to finish looking around.


	6. Vision

**Chapter Five**

**_Vision_**

Towards the end of the day, the Farmer's Market was starting to wrap up and many of the venders were finishing up their last sells while closing up and packing things away into the trucks or cars they had driven in to attended. Jonathan and Martha were taking down the tent tarp they had been using to give their area shade while Clark, Lara, Chloe, and Pete were stacking up the boxes of left over produce and making trips back and forth between the blue pickup truck parked just outside the area used for the Farmer's Market. While Clark headed off towards the pickup with a couple of apple baskets stacked up on one another in hand, Lara and the others finished rearranging things so that way they would stack up better. Pete grabbed two boxes of plums stacked and ready to go. "Hey, I'm gonna go take these to the truck." He said while looking over at the two girls, who nodded at him before he took off.

As the two girls returned to packing things up, Chloe glanced over at Lara who was rearranging some vegetables in a crate. Pausing a moment in what she was doing, Chloe turned a bit more to face the dark haired Kent girl. "Hey Lara, what are you doing later on?" she asked while holding a somewhat hopeful look on her face as she had a few reasons as to why she was asking this question. Chloe needed to do a few things at the _Torch_ that would get done a bit faster if she had an extra set of hands helping out, and Chloe knew that Lara was more than capable of helping out with the high school paper a bit more than her twin brother was.

Lara managed to get a cucumber to fit into the last crate before looking over at Chloe and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and out of her face. "Nothing really, just homework. Why?" she asked while grinning, which caused her nose and forehead to wrinkle a bit.

Chloe's face became a bit more alight as she heard Lara's answer and grinned at her. "Do you think you'd be able to come over to the _Torch_ and help me out with a few things for the next edition? I'll even spring for a coffee break at The Beanery." She stated with a sort of sly grin on her face.

Lara laughed a little before giving her friend a broad smile. "Wow, offering of coffee? Now that's definitely a new way to bribe your friends." She commented in a teasing manner while still laughing a bit. "Sure Chloe, I'll come help you out at the _Torch_." Lara replied finally, which had her blonde friend grinning from ear to ear practically before returning to the crate before her and finishing the last bit of packing needed to be done. "Ah, I'll get that if you'll finish packing this one." Lara gestured between the two crates they had been working on.

"Okay. Just don't pull a back muscle or anything." Chloe stated as she was pretty sure the crate she had been working on was packed to the max and a bit heavy.

Grabbing the handles of the crate, Lara gave her a small nod of the head to Chloe and then lifted the crate up. Putting up an act so that way Chloe wouldn't get suspicious, Lara let her shoulders sag a bit while holding the crate just below her waist and then started off towards the truck. As soon as she was out of sight, Lara easily lifted the crate up to a more comfortable position for herself. It was hard sometimes to play pretend for her friends, especially when it was more acceptable for Clark to be strong enough to lift several crates at the same time like the one she was carrying. That type of stereotyping irritated Lara a bit, but she just accepted it enough to not have any questions asked of her. Grumbling something under her breath to herself, Lara glanced off to her left for a brief moment to see Lana over with Whitney by his truck. Apparently they were saying good-bye or whatever, because as they went to kiss each other, Lara looked away and focused on what she was supposed to be doing since it was none of her business. _Oh, but how it has become that way now it seems. _Lara sighed to herself at the whole situation while once again resuming her acting skills as she was approaching the family truck and spotted both her brother and Lex Luthor standing by.

As Lara came up beside the blue truck she lugged the heavy crate up on to the edge of the truck bed and looked over at her brother and their friend. "Hey guys." She greeted them with a somewhat exasperated sigh in act of having lugged a heavy crate to the truck.

"Hey sis." Clark returned while sliding the crate out from under his sister's grasp and then set it down at the end of the truck bed. While setting in, Clark took notice of the fact that Lex was staring at his sister with a rather unreadable look that he wasn't really taking a liking to at the moment. Dropping the crate the rest of the way, which of course caused a somewhat loud bang that startled Lex and caused Lara to look over at him from staring off at some kids playing soccer, Clark looked over at his sister with a small smile on his face. "Hey Lara, can you let mom know that the truck is almost packed up and ready to go?" he asked while suggesting at the same time for her to leave now, which caused Lara to raise a confused brow.

"Okay." Lara stated while turning away from him slowly. "See ya Lex." She didn't even really glance over at him as she then walked off back towards what was left of the booth. As confusing as that had been, Lara only shook it off.

Once everything had been finally packed up and stored in the bed of the pickup, Martha and Jonathan left the Farmer's Market with Clark since Lara told them she was going to go with Chloe to the _Torch_ to help out with the paper. Leaving the makeshift parking lot Lara headed back towards what was left of the food area of the market to catch up with Chloe and Pete who were waiting for her return. Once the small trio was together they headed back to the parking area where Chloe's red bug was waiting for them. Pete hopped into the backseat while both Lara and Chloe took the front seats. After the engine was started Chloe backed her car up out of the spot she had picked upon first arriving and turned her car about to back towards town and to the high school. Before the red bug left the parking lot, Lara caught sight of Lex getting into his car off to her right. Both made eye contact with each other, and Lara held her hand up a bit to wave while a small smile came across her lips as she left with her friends. Lex offered a short wave back and watched as the red VW bug turned out on to the main road and then drove off. For some reason Lex couldn't help but smile to himself while getting into his own car to leave as well. _She just has one of those smiles that's infectious._

With the radio on in the car and the convertible top down, the three chatted about the upcoming science project that their teacher Mr. Larson had been telling them about for the passed two weeks concerning something about the metal alloy called lead. The conversation continued, but eventually switched to something else by the time the three friends pulled up into the student parking lot of the high school and then headed inside towards the _Torch _office. Chloe of course led the way while Pete followed alongside her and Lara followed behind them. "Pete I'm gonna need you to dig out the year book from twelve years ago, and find the picture of Jeremy Creek as well as anything else on him that can tell us about what he did or was involved in during his time here at Smallville High." Chloe stated while looking over at him in a momentary glance.

"Whoa, Chloe. What kind of article are you writing on Jeremy Creek?" Lara asked while picking up her pace and got in between her and Pete rather quickly.

Chloe looked over at Lara and gave her a somewhat half grin. "An article about how after twelve years of being in a coma he suddenly disappears from the hospital he was housed in and shows back up in Smallville at the same time several former jocks are put into comas of their own." She stated while coming to a stop before the door of the school paper's office, and dug through her purse for a brief moment to fish out her keys.

Lara's brow furrowed a moment to this as she and Pete came to a stop on either side of Chloe. "Chloe, the poor guy doesn't even remember what happened to him. What do you think is going to happen if you run an article about all of this?" Lara asked, as she was trying to keep Jeremy Creek free of high school gossip.

"A good article is what's going to happen along with further proof that the meteor rocks may have had side affects on the people of Smallville since the shower." Chloe replied while shoving the key into the door lock and then turned the knob. Opening the door into the office, Chloe stepped in and flipped the lights on so that way they could see what they were doing inside. "Wait, Lara, you and Clark were the ones who found Jeremy." She stated rather excitedly as they entered the small classroom. Turning about to face her darker haired friend, Chloe held a huge grin on her face.

A rather stern and serious look crossed Lara's face at that moment as she walked passed Chloe. "No Chloe. I'm not going to help you exploit Jeremy Creek just so you prove something that doesn't make any sense whatsoever." Lara stated while stopping near a computer and then turned about halfway to look back at Chloe, who held a somewhat confused look on her face, while Pete just gave his friend a shrug of the shoulders saying he didn't want to get in the middle of this.

"Lara, ever since the meteor shower weird things have been happening here in Smallville that no one can seem to explain." Chloe pointed out in defense of her case. "And it all started after the meteor shower."

Lara held her stern look still while placing a hand on her hip. "Chloe, if you're talking about two headed calves or hundred pound vegetables I'm going to tell you the same thing my dad told me, and that's because of all the stuff the Luthor Corp fertilizer plant has been pumping out over the years since it has been here. What happened to Jeremy Creek isn't something to be made into a editorial when we don't any real or solid proof." Lara explained, the look on her face had dropped a bit from completely serious and stern to one that was rather blank and dumbfounded as out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of something on the wall to her right. Her gaze had her head now drifting over to stare at a wall covered in newspaper articles and magazine clippings, many having colored pictures accompanying the black and white print. Confused as to what this was, Lara stepped over to the wall slowly. Lara studied the wall for a moment and for a while her gaze remained on the cover of TIME magazine where a young girl was dressed in a fairy princess costume crying. _Lana? _"What is this?" she asked while looking back over her shoulder at Chloe and Pete.

A small smile started to form on Chloe's face as she came over to Lara's side. "This would be the 'Wall of Weird'." She replied while her small smile became a bit more broader. "It started out like a scrape book and then it just mutated into this." Chloe explained while then looking over at her friend with a somewhat mischievous smile on her face now. "It chronicles every thing that has happened in Smallville since the meteor shower. I don't know if Clark told you or not, but Jeremy Creek was the year's scarecrow when the shower happened. A meteor hit about twenty yards from where Jeremy was tied up at in Riley Field, he was rendered unconscious and taken to a state infirmary where he was in a coma for twelve years. After that there's an electrical storm in the area, the hospital takes a momentary power surge and when the generator kicks in, Jeremy's gone. The next thing we know he's back in Smallville and former jocks are being put into comas."

Chloe was right in the sense that Clark hadn't exactly told Lara everything about Jeremy Creek and what was going on with the whole situation. Hearing it from Chloe caused Lara's thoughts to somewhat give a bit in the stubborn setting they had been placed in. Maybe Chloe was right, maybe there was a connection between these things and the meteor shower. But if that was the case, then that meant it was all their fault. Lara looked away from Chloe and back at the wall. "Why didn't you show me this before?" she asked while keeping her blue-eyed gaze upon the wall before her.

Giving an exasperated groan, Chloe raised and dropped her hands in showy gesture. "I give up with you Kents." She stated while turning around and walking over to the nearest computer to take a seat before it and get started on the editorial for the next _Torch _issue. After the computer screen snapped to life and flickered for a moment before stabilizing itself, Chloe looked up over at Pete who was staring at the wall with Lara while casting a few quick glances over at the dark haired girl to see what she was thinking, as she seemed to usually convey her thoughts right on her face. "Hey Pete, I need that year book today." Chloe stated while giving a somewhat demanding look before returning to the computer before her.

Turning around, Lara gave Chloe a look of disbelief before speaking up finally. "Chloe, why are you doing this? If you write this article it's just going to end up turning things into a issue of _The Inquisitor_." Lara stated while trying to both protect Jeremy Creek from any type of persecution and Chloe's reputation as an inspiring reporter.

"Lara I'm only reporting on something that happened here in Smallville, and whether or not its believed… is up to the people who read it." The last part came out a bit slower and less sure in what was being said. Chloe looked up from the computer screen while biting the inside of her lower lip. "I guess I would end up turning this article into something like _The Inquisitor_." Chloe admitted with a guilty look on her face accompanied by a sheepish smile that was small in its appearance. After glancing over at Pete for a moment to see him trying to hide a laugh and a huge smile he couldn't contain, Chloe grabbed a piece of paper off the table and crumpled it up to throw at him. Chucking it, Chloe caught Pete right in the back of the head and then looked back over at Lara without the guilty look or the sheepish grin. Instead she had a rather insightful and amused look. "You know Lara, I can definitely see you becoming a lawyer or something along those lines later on in life." She stated.

"Oh yeah, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. That's me, Lara Kent." Lara replied in a sort of slight mocking to what Chloe had said, and thus earned her the right to have a paper ball tossed at her face as well. Lara took it over the top in her reaction to being hit, as the paper ball went for her face Lara brought her hands up to block it off and acted as though she had been hit by something coming at her really hard and really fast as she fell backwards to the floor in pretend.

Even though she was goofing around, Lara's actions caused Chloe to shoot up out of her chair and peer over the side of the desk with a frightened and shocked look on her face. "Oh my god! Lara are you –?"

Before Chloe could finish her question or even really look over the edge of the desk, Lara popped back up on her feet and nearly scared Chloe half to death. "You know, this is a waste." She stated while holding up the paper ball and then tossed it on to the desk.

Pete burst out laughing as he took a seat across from Chloe, and was near tears as the whole situation was too funny. Chloe still had a look of fading shock and oncoming disbelief as she sat back down in her chair while Lara was pulling up a chair to the desk. Catching Chloe's attention on her, Lara gave her a questioning look of puzzlement after settling herself in the chair. "What is wrong with you?" Chloe asked while tossing the paper ball at Lara again and this time managed to brink it off the crown of her dark haired head. "Seriously, Lara what was that all about anyways?" she asked while crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair, a rather unamused look on her face.

Lara grimaced in a funny smirk when the paper ball ricocheted off her head and landed somewhere on the floor behind her. Grinning over at Chloe, Lara shrugged her shoulders a bit. "Just trying to add some entertainment to your life. You know, keep you on your toes and all." Lara stated with a singsong tone in her voice as she spoke. "So, now that I've ruined your article on Jeremy Creek and the 'effects' of meteor rocks, what are you going to do?" she now asked while scooting up further to the desk and folded her arms across the edge of it while pulling free a newspaper clipping that was caught in between two books.

"Not sure." Chloe admitted while again biting her bottom lip tapping her index finger against her opposite forearm. "I am now at a complete loss." She near whined while placing both hands to her face and leaned further over the back of the chair she sat in.

Watching Chloe's reaction, Lara Kent grinned a bit after looking up from the clipping she had begun to read. "Hey, you know you can always write something up about…say maybe…oh I don't know, Bigfoot?" Lara suggested while a much broader grin was spreading as Chloe shot straight up and gave her a rather displeased look for what she said. "Oh, oh! I know! You should write about the Werewolves in Wisconsin!" Lara started, her voice growing excited as she spoke.

"Lara." Chloe spoke her friend's name to get her attention off whatever it was she was thinking at that moment, as she knew Lara was just saying stuff to both be funny and just to ride Chloe's nerves a bit in all good humor.

"The Jersey Devil." Lara continued while then looking over at Pete with a bright look on her face she was trying to convince him in what she was saying as well. Pete was starting to laugh a bit while shaking his head and flipping through the pages of a sports magazine he had pulled out from amongst other things littering the large desk. He was trying not to get himself involved.

Chloe crossed her arms and started to tap her fingers impatiently. "Lara." Her voice was taking on a more stern tone of voice as if she were unamused at this point.

Lara had a huge grin across her face now as she had final thing to say. "La Chupacabra!" she stated in finale while faking a Mexican accent as she spoke, rolling the word on her tongue.

"Lara!" Chloe exclaimed while giving her friend a somewhat annoyed and yet at the same time she trying not to laugh. "Seriously, weren't you the one arguing that I shouldn't write about stuff I can't prove or back up?" she asked while not having a paper ball to throw at her friend, but settled for flicking a pencil top eraser at her.

Moving her head to the side, and dodging the eraser flicked at her, Lara grinned near stupidly at her blonde friend. "Sorry Chloe, I was just trying to help." Lara pointed out while returning her attention back to the newspaper article she still had in hand.

Chloe shook her head a bit at this while turning her attention to her computer. "Yeah, yeah. Lara Kent to the rescue." She grinned while glancing over at her friend from the corner of her eye. "What are you reading anyways?" Lara glanced over at Chloe momentarily and then held up the newspaper clipping with its printed side flipped about so that way Chloe could read it for herself. Chloe did a once over of the clipping and then nodded her head. "Oh, right. I clipped that out of the _Daily Planet _yesterday." Chloe stated while then returning to her work on the computer.

Flipping the article about, Lara seemed to study it a moment before she then looked at Chloe with a somewhat confused look on her face. "Didn't know you were interested in the on goings of Wayne Enterprises." Lara said while raising an amused brow at the same time. "Especially since, oh I don't know, it's in Gotham City." Her eyes held a suspicious gleam in them as she stared at Chloe trying to pry out an answer now. Even Pete had left his magazine flipping to look between Lara and Chloe, wondering the same as the dark haired Kent.

"What?" Chloe asked while looking up once more from her computer as she realized that both pairs of eyes were upon her now and searching for answers to their questions. "It was an interesting article that happened to be in the _Daily Planet_, so I read and then decided to save it." Chloe stated in near defense of herself while starting to show signs that she was growing a tad nervous with the prying.

The sudden fidget in Chloe's demeanor caused Pete to slightly furrow his brow in puzzlement, while Lara on the other hand was starting to grin like the Cheshire Cat. "Oh so, you know, never mind the fact that they have a picture of the company's CEO," Lara paused a moment in her statement to look at the name under the picture real quick," Bruce Wayne, on here as well?" she asked while flipping the clipped article about so that way it faced Chloe again.

The article was a bit small, but it had a rather decent colored picture of the CEO of Wayne Enterprises along side the printing. Having been faced with the pressing question by her friend, and the added further furrowing of Pete's brow as well, Chloe started to become further nervous with this new subject and decided to try and change it quickly before Lara got anything further out of her. "Well, you're one to talk, Ms. Social-life With The Rich And Famous." Chloe pointed out quickly in a near accusation rather quickly towards Lara.

A bit confused as to what Chloe meant, Lara raised an eyebrow while her brow furrowed a bit at the same time. "What?" she asked, clearly oblivious to what Chloe was talking about at the moment.

_Aye, Lara how is it even possible for you to be incredibly successful at prying out the truth with people, but yet at the same time you act like a near airhead? _Chloe almost smacked her own forehead with the palm of her hand after Lara gave such a confused stare. "I'm talking about your sudden budding friendship that you and Clark have started with Lex Luthor." Chloe stated while giving Lara a somewhat annoyed look.

The innocent look that Lara had on her face along with the sheepish grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, had Pete near ready to fall over out of his chair as he started laughing all over again. Chloe on the other hand rolled her eyes and started back on working out her next editorial for the _Torch_. For another two and a half hours, Chloe had finally found something she could use as an editorial for the next week's newspaper release, that is after much poking and prodding on the part of Lara Kent who convinced Chloe to write about Wayne Enterprises and its CEO – Bruce Wayne. At around four thirty or so, the three friends closed up the small office and left the school. Chloe offered to drop both Pete and Lara off at their respective houses, but while Pete accepted the offer, Lara declined while explaining that she was going to head into town and do a few things before she would call home for a ride.

Outside in the student parking lot, Lara watched Chloe's red VW bug pull out of the lot and turn on to the main road. The small horn honked as both Chloe and Pete waved good-bye to their friend. Lara waved back while watching them disappear down the street and turn a corner. Sighing to herself while shoving both her hands into the pockets of her denim jacket, Lara glanced about quickly for a moment and then was gone from the parking lot faster than the blink of an eye. The super teen sped down the street and entered the downtown area of Smallville all within a short minute arriving within the eaves of an alleyway that separated the **Beanery** from another store lining the streets of downtown. Taking a moment to make sure she didn't look windblown and somewhat suspicious, Lara adjusted her jacket and then walked out of the alley in a casual manner and headed for the **Beanery**. No one seemed to pay any attention to her at all when she just seemed to show up on the sidewalk, but as she stopped at the door of the small coffee shop to pull it open, she was noticed from across the street by someone who knew her.

Heading inside, Lara went straight for the front counter and ordered for herself a large Chai Tea Frappuccino to go and then waited off to the side as the gal behind the counter set to work on her drink order. While waiting, attention turned about to the activity behind the counter, Lara was oblivious as to who walked into the **Beanery **after her until they came up right beside her and started speaking to her directly.

"Running solo?"

Lara almost jumped when she heard the voice start speaking to her and then looked over at her right to see Greg Arkin standing there with a small smile on his face. "Oh, hey Greg." She greeted him with a grin while trying to settle her beating heart down as it was still racing a bit from the sudden fright that near come over her. "I'm just grabbing a little something before I head out. What about you? I didn't see you around the Farmer's Market afterwards." Lara stated as she tried to make conversation with a friend she hadn't really talked to in a while.

Greg shrugged his shoulders before verbally responding. "I got bored and left." He replied while glancing off momentarily towards the front windows of the coffee house and then returned his attention back to Lara. "Do mind if I ask you a question?" he suddenly asked while holding a somewhat serious look on his face at the same time.

"Yeah sure." Lara replied while her smile dropped a bit as something about the way Greg looked was starting raise a curious sense of worry on her part.

"Are you like friends or something with Whitney Foreman?" Greg asked, his brow furrowing a bit at the mention of the quarterback's name even from himself.

"Well, not really. He's more like someone I randomly talk to if I pass him in the hall at school or run into anywhere else outside of school." Lara explained while trying to understand her status with the high school athlete she wasn't about to call 'friend'. "He's been trying to recruit me for the girl's soccer team lately."

Greg nodded his head to this, his own facial expression softening now that he understood something on his own part. "Figures. I knew someone would eventually start poking you on that subject." Greg commented while then smiling a bit at her. "So, are you going to try-out?" he asked, as he too also knew Lara was a very good player when it came to soccer.

Lara's stomach dropped at the mention of trying out for the team. However, she just gave Greg a half-hearted smile and then shrugged her shoulders in response. "I don't know yet." She answered while then looking away and to the gal standing behind the counter with her drink ready for her. Taking the ready drink, Lara looked back over at Greg. "Well, I better get going. I'll see ya at school Greg." Lara stated in a short farewell while also smiling at him. Greg returned the smile and said his own good-bye to her before the dark haired teen left the coffee house and entered the stream upon the sidewalk, walking off down towards the direction of the old movie theater. Yanking the wrapper off the straw in her hand by way of using her teeth, Lara popped the green colored plastic tube into the open port in the dome shaped lid that covered her drink. Before she was even about to set her lips about the straw's head to take a drink of her chilled smoothie like Chai Tea, Lara came to a complete stop on the sidewalk and looked back over her shoulder as she heard someone shouting.

Before she had the time to react, Lara was near blind-sided as a guy dressed in some rather faded and very old looking clothes came running passed. When the guy hit her, Lara was a bit confused but she hadn't really been moved except for a slight stumble off to the side. The guy on the other hand had nearly been knocked to the ground but managed to keep himself on his feet, only he was holding his upper left arm with the other hand holding a bright pink leather purse. His face showed a look of contorted pain as he looked at the somewhat startled teen girl who almost towered over him by a foot. His arm hurt like hell, as if he had just clipped a brick wall or something… that seemed odd when you run into a teen girl. However, the guy wasn't the only person who was confused and reacting strangely to this whole event. Lara stared at the guy wide-eyed as her eyes apparently had something very wrong with them and how she viewed the world. Everything looked like an x-ray or something, like a negative of a piece of film that you hold up and stare at with some light source. Only, Lara was seeing this guy's skeletal structure and also the contains of the purse he held. The first name of the ID within the bag read JODI, but as Lara was so incredibly freaked out with what was going on with her eyes, she didn't even really catch too much of anything else.

Looking around quickly, all Lara could see was negative x-rays of the whole world, nothing but walking skeletons in a bluish background. Finally blinking, Lara's eyes returned to normal she gave the guy before her a rather harsh stare as she realized what he was up to. Catching the look on the girl's face, the guy made to bolt, but Lara caught him by the scruff of his shirt collar and yanked him back and nearly tossed him to the ground…but then that would be too suspicious of course. As the guy stumbled backwards, Lara grabbed the purse and then stuck her foot out for him to trip up and fall backwards. Of course the guy did and luckily enough Sheriff Ethan rolled up in his cruiser along with his partner and saw most of what happened when Lara grabbed him.

The two officers got out of the car and came over to the young teen that Ethan knew through her father Jonathan Kent. "Lara, you okay?" he asked while coming up to them with a hand resting on the holster of his gun as his partner knelt down beside the guy and flipped him over to cuff him.

"Yeah, I think so." Lara replied but then was ready to retract her statement as all she stared at was a man with no skin and just all muscle structure like you saw on those school diagrams. _What is going on!_

"Lara?"

It took a few rapid blinks of her eyes to cut the oddities out quickly, but the call of her name snapped her further out the whole consuming fear that had started to come over her at that moment with the whole eye thing. Looking over towards the direction the purse snatcher had come from, Lara spotted a girl her own age with blonde hair and was rather heavy set in her body build. "Jodi, hey." Lara greeted her friend from school while then quickly looking at the two officers who had the purse-snatcher up on his feet and handcuffed. Looking back at Jodi, Lara realized the purse must be hers' considering the fact that she had 'seen' the ID inside…? "Uh, I guess this is yours?" she asked while handing the pink purse over to her.

"Yeah, it is. That creep ran up from behind me and grabbed it." Jodi stated while taking the purse back with a thankful look on her face and then watched as one of the officers escorted the guy to the cruiser. "Thanks so much Lara. I don't know what I would have done if nobody stopped him." She stated while grinning at the dark haired girl.

Lara smiled back at her while trying to push aside what had happened earlier with her own eyes. "Hey no problem. You okay though?" she asked while now realizing that the purse-snatcher could have hurt Jodi when he grabbed the bag.

Jodi nodded while opening her purse and going through it quickly. "Yeah I'm fine." She stated and then closed her purse. "How about you?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm good." _For as far as_ _good goes when your eyes go all freaky on you!_


End file.
